The Karma Revero is looking increasingly likely to hit European shores for the first time. The Revero is of course descended from the ill-fated Fisker Karma luxury hybrid sports sedan from 2011 that had its life unfortunately cut short due to bankruptcy following a couple of battery recalls.
The new Karma Revero is essentially a high-end rival to the Porsche Panama E-Hybrid 4, and following its rebirth in 2016 in Moreno Valley, California, where it has been rolling off the production line for the past 14 months, the company now plan to make the car available in Europe and Asia.
The Revero is fairly unique in that it has solar panels on its roof directly supplying the high voltage battery – all very good in California of course, but thankfully solar panel technology is moving fast with size and efficiency improving (you don’t always need full sun). Reassuringly for anyone in Northern Europe anticipating the arrival of the Revero, Karma’s Chief Revenues Officer Jim Taylor says that the current solar panels on the car are twice as powerful as the original ones on the Fisker. Although the company hasn’t revealed any solid figures for charging times as yet, only that the company are still a way off being able to utilise technology that would enable the Revero to charge up in just a few hours – and this is in sunny California… Even so, the driver will be able to view the progress of any charging on the car’s infotainment system, either stationery or during travel.
The 4-door Karma Revero as it currently exists, has a 2-litre turbocharged 4-cylinder engine plus twin electric motors. It pushes out 260bhp and can run for up to 50 miles in full electric mode and has a combined fossil fuel and electric range of around 300 miles, though the company hopes to improve on that electric-only figure for the future.
These spy pictures show the revised Revero coupé being tested in America and suggest that the front and rear have undergone some alterations. For Europe and Asia, we can also expect to see the usual tweaks to the (self-levelling) suspension, but it looks like the exterior profile will remain pretty much the same as it has since the Fisker.
Curiously, the news of an imminent European arrival has brought out some negative responses on automotive forums – possibly one downfall to not changing the shape recognisably enough to distinguish it from the original.
In answer to this, it has to be said that the Revero is an improved version of the Fisker: As there are still around 1,200 of these original cars on the road, this has allowed the new Revero to benefit from Karma engineers being able to study some of these original models to improve on any design faults and mistakes.
With no further information or dates given or even hinted at, a European sun-powered hybrid Revero remains an enigma waiting to happen.
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