UAE gets electric Karma

Henrik Fisker, executive chairman of Fisker Automotive, stands beside a Fisker Karma electric sports car, which he says is a perfect fit for the UAE, in Dubai yesterday. Jeffrey E Biteng / The NationaShow more

A country that lays claim to some of the cheapest petrol on the planet may not appear to be the most obvious location to sell an electric car.

But then again, the Fisker Karma is no ordinary green vehicle.

The plug-in hybrid, which can reach speeds of up to 200 kilometres per hour, will cost between Dh500,000 (US$136,117) and Dh600,000 pitting it against the likes of the Porsche Panamera.

Already on sale in the United States and Europe, the Karma was unveiled in the UAE yesterday and is being rolled out across the Middle East by Dubai-based Trading Enterprises.

The first showroom in the region is expected to open this year in Dubai Festival City. "When you look at the UAE they are really trying to build the cities of tomorrow, the future cities and what better than to have the future car?" said Fisker co-founder's Henrik Fisker, yesterday at an event to unveil the Karma in the UAE.

Mr Fisker worked for some of the world's biggest car companies - and was responsible for designing some of the most captivating models - before leaving to set up his own company with a fellow automotive employee.

But he initially struggled to break into the industry.

"In school … I said I wanted to be a car designer and they said no, that doesn't exist. You can become an engineer," he said.

Never letting up on his ambition, Mr Fisker wrote to Volvo for advice on becoming a car designer when he was 22 and working as a technical draftsman.

The Swedish car company, which he had hoped would offer him a job, advised him to attend design school. There were two options: the US or Switzerland. He chose the latter because it was closer to his home country of Denmark.

After graduating he joined BMW, where he designed the Z8, which featured in the 1999 James Bond film, The World Is Not Enough. He went on to work for Ford and later Aston Martin, where he designed the DB9 and V8 Vantage, before leaving to set up Fisker Coachbuild with Barny Koehler.

The company made one-off cars for a year-and-a-half before the men came across a technology originally designed for the US military. It had an electric mode designed to help vehicles stay quiet behind enemy lines and one to speed away quickly when necessary.

And so Fisker was born.

The company was founded in 2007 and the Karma was expected to follow a couple of years after, but deliveries were not made until last year.

Its first customer was Leonardo DiCaprio, and the Karma is to feature in a film he is producing, according to Mr Fisker, as well as in an upcoming thriller, Paranoia, which will star Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman. The company has made 1,500 sales of the Karma since December. Its biggest dealer is in the Netherlands, where the brand has sold 150 cars.

Mr Fisker is the company's executive chairman and Mr Koehler is the chief executive for the Europe and Middle East regions.

"In terms of size [the UAE] is kind of comparable," said Colin Cordery, managing director of Trading Enterprises.

"The competition within me says I have to beat the Netherlands," he added.

The UAE may not be known first for its environmental credentials, but it is improving, Mr Fisker said.

Besides, it is known for other things. "Everybody here likes new technology. They like the future. They like to show that they are part of being innovative, intelligent, luxury and I really think that fits perfectly here," he said.