Finland is not noted for its car production, but the Fisker Karma is not your average car. This hybrid-powered rival to the Porsche Panamera has just entered production at the Valmet factory, which also happens to build cars for Porsche.
The Karma uses a 260hp 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, but not to directly drive the wheels. Instead, the petrol motor is used as a generator to charge the lithium-ion batteries, which send power to twin electric motors, one for each rear wheel.
Together, the electric motors produce 410hp to help the Karma from 0-100km/h in 5.9 seconds. Top speed is 200km/h, but more importantly the Fisker has a range of 480 kilometres between fuel fills or plug-in recharges for the battery pack.
Aimed at Porsche Panamera and Mercedes-Benz CLS buyers, the Fisker Karma goes on sale in some markets later this year, though there have been no announcements about Irish sales as yet.