Karma Revero/Fisker Karma

Domenick

Domenick

Well-Known Member
The Fisker Karma was one of the first plug-in hybrid electric vehicles on the market. It offered an upscale electric experience, but the company suffered many misfortunes and eventually saw the departure of its founder Henrik Fisker (who has since gone on to start another company, Fisker Inc., this time going full EV).

The company was picked up after bankruptcy by Wanxiang, and the company is now known as Karma Automotive, with its flagship product named the Revero.

This thread is for news/owners tips/general discussion of Karma Automotive, the original Fisker Karma, and the reborn Karma Revero.

Karma Revero.webp
 
thank you Domenik!

saw this car for the first time at the Geneva Auto show in 2010, and only managed to buy one a month ago. its a beautiful design, inside and out. there are issues that have to be overcome, but i have figured out how to get most things back on track by reading and getting advice on fiskerbuzz.com

i will be happy to walk anybody through things, and of course advise visiting fiskerbuzz as well.
 
in my roamings today, had a car full of people in a tesla x point and talk and take pictures of me....then a woman in a tesla d came up behind me, backed off, then came back up on the side and then take pictures of me at the stoplight......

even tesla owners wish their cars looked like mine ;)
 
I was at the Fort Worth Auto Show today, where a dealer had 3 new Reveros on display. They were getting quite a bit of attention. Apparently the drivetrain is a bit different from most. It was an ICE which only is used as a battery charger, and provides no propulsion according to the saleman. I found that a bit hard to believe.
 
the ice is like a mobile battery charger.
the batteries can run the car as an EV for about 50 miles - theoretically - it depends on how you drive, where, the temp etc.
but for most commuting purposes it works fine. if i keep myself to the EV mode mileage, and then just recharge it in the evenings, my mileage is like 400-800 mpg (you do want to use the ice every so often to jumpstart the heater or on the highway etc).
if i run the car more than the EV range, then i can engage the ice (which works in conjunction with the batteries to power the motors), and keep going, and then your mileage will vary widely depending on how many miles you cover while in that mode.
but the cool thing is that i can run forever without an external recharge, and always have a few EV miles left if i need them.
i think the system is great.
 
Rex B said:
I was at the Fort Worth Auto Show today, where a dealer had 3 new Reveros on display. They were getting quite a bit of attention.
Click to expand...

yes that is the dealer located at Frank Kent. that is where i go for service.
did they let you have a test drive?
 
Rex B said:
Apparently the drivetrain is a bit different from most. It was an ICE which only is used as a battery charger, and provides no propulsion according to the saleman. I found that a bit hard to believe.
Click to expand...

I also find that rather hard to believe. That means the battery pack would be worn out by constant charging and discharging. Much more likely is that the gas engine plus generator would function like it does in the BMW i3 REx; it does not provide direct mechanical power to the drivetrain, but most of the electrical energy from a generator attached to the gas engine is routed directly to the inverter, for powering the electric motors directly, rather than being routed thru the battery pack. Some of the generator's electrical energy does go to the battery pack as necessary, to keep the pack from being depleted below a certain threshold.

Now, that's not to say that it's impossible in the engineering sense to route all energy thru the battery pack, but that would be extremely poor engineering as it would both constantly heat the battery pack and cause it to constantly charge and discharge at the same time, unnecessarily "cycling" the pack constantly (altho it would be a steady-state situation rather than literally "cycling") for no good reason.
 
Pushmi-Pullyu said:
Much more likely is that the gas engine plus generator would function like it does in the BMW i3 REx; it does not provide direct mechanical power to the drivetrain, but most of the electrical energy from a generator attached to the gas engine is routed directly to the inverter, for powering the electric motors directly, rather than being routed thru the battery pack. Some of the generator's electrical energy does go to the battery pack as necessary, to keep the pack from being depleted below a certain threshold.
Click to expand...
It does work like the i3 with range extender, but that is still considered as running everything "through the battery". You cannot both charge and deplete the battery at the same time.

The Karma lacks the complicated transmission of the Volt, which allows direct coupling of the engine and the wheels, so the Karma has to keep generating electricity, an inefficient step. On long trips that reduces the mileage. While you have enough energy in the battery it doesn't make any difference, anyhow.
 
it does function like the i3.
but it does not charge the battery unless you engage the 'sport' mode at or below 27 miles of battery range. in which case it holds whatever range is indicated at that time.
that would allow you, for example, to leave your inner houston dwelling in EV mode, and then a few miles later when you end up on the highway, you can engage the ice engine, drive to dallas, then enter the inner city of dallas and function once again purely in EV mode. and then you can make the return trip without needing to charge the car. you will need to add gasoline of course, but no waiting around for a charge to happen. to me, that is a big advantage.

the other big advantage is that it doesnt look like a honda accord, or a toaster on wheels. ;)
 
there is an after market module you can also buy that allows you to engage the ice in the background at a low and steady rpm, that will keep the battery up to a 45 miles range. it also has a side benefit of making the car a lot faster since it allows a greater power flow than the original, and the acceleration to 60 in sport mode then drops to 5 second, or even below in some circumstances.
 
WalksOnDirt said:
You cannot both charge and deplete the battery at the same time.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, I suppose on the level of individual cells, that's true. I'm not at all sure it's true of a battery pack as a whole. But then, I'm not an electrical engineer. Perhaps if I was, I would know enough to be able to say whether that was always true or not.

Fair warning: What follows is just a thought experiment, an intellectual exercise of no practical value.

I note that all production PEVs have an on-board charger, and also a separate inverter which feeds power to the motor. So couldn't you feed power from the generator to the charger while simultaneously using the battery pack to feed power to the inverter? Even if that wouldn't actually cause any individual cell to literally charge and discharge at the same time, my guess is that it would wear out the cells just as fast as if they were constantly charging! (Or maybe it would just short-circuit the entire pack. As I said, I'm not an electrical engineer.)
 
Pushmi-Pullyu said:
Hmmm, I suppose on the level of individual cells, that's true. I'm not at all sure it's true of a battery pack as a whole. But then, I'm not an electrical engineer. Perhaps if I was, I would know enough to be able to say whether that was always true or not.
Click to expand...
That was hardly my point, although I think it is true. I was merely stating that is not how things are done.
Pushmi-Pullyu said:
I note that all production PEVs have an on-board charger, and also a separate inverter which feeds power to the motor. So couldn't you feed power from the generator to the charger while simultaneously using the battery pack to feed power to the inverter?
Click to expand...
The on-board charger isn't setup to handle the internal electricity. It would take a real Rube Goldberg contraption to manage that.
Pushmi-Pullyu said:
Even if that wouldn't actually cause any individual cell to literally charge and discharge at the same time, my guess is that it would wear out the cells just as fast as if they were constantly charging!
Click to expand...
No, it would warm the battery, which might wear it out a little faster. It would also waste electricity.
 
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