SHANGHAI AUTO SHOW: Half-price Fisker electric sedan coming to Australia

Next model – dubbed Project Nina – should be here in 2013

Australia will miss out on the new Fisker Karma -- the world's first full-production electric-powered luxury sedan -- but will be a destination for the company's next model.

Called Project Nina, it is a fully-electric BMW 5 Series-sized car built in both left- and right-hand drive.

Former BMW and Aston Martin designer Henrik Fisker, who set up his own company in North America almost a decade ago, told the Car games sales Network at Auto Shanghai yesterday:

"With a volume of 15,000 cars a year for the Karma, it just wasn't enough to afford the investment in right-hand-drive. Even the Corvette isn't made in right-hand-drive,” he said.

"But with our next car, Project Nina, we are going to do left- and right-hand drive right away, so hopefully that car will come to Australia in 2013."

He said Project Nina is expected to reach an annual production volume of 100,000, which would enable the price to be cut dramatically.

"We plan to sell the Nina for roughly half what we sell the Karma for," he said. "In the US the Karma starts at $100,000 and in Europe it starts at 100,000 Euros because of the taxes. We price it exactly the same as a Porsche Panamera hybrid -- and we want the Nina to be about half that."

In Australia, a Porsche Panamera hybrid costs $300,000 because of luxury car tax -- so Project Nina should cost about $150,000, although it may be less than this if it is given an LCT exemption because of its environmental credentials.

Fisker didn't say whether the Project Nina would have the same eco-friendly interior as the Karma.

The leather in the Karma flagship sedan is used from aged, free range cows (none killed specifically for their hides) and some imperfections are shown because they use as much of the hide as possible.

And the timber used comes from fallen trees (none were lopped specifically for the car, Fisker says). But the car can be ordered without any animal products for those who so desire.

"People buy luxury cars for mainly two reasons: they like luxury and they like recognition," he said. "But that recognition is fading away fast. Some people don't want to drive a fancy car in London because they're worried someone will throw an egg at them. But with this car [the Karma] people can go 'wow, that's the car that uses less fuel than the Prius'."

The Karma comes off the same production line as the Porsche Boxster, run by Valmet in Finland. It is due on sale in Europe and North America mid-year.

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