Green car glamour sector gives new names entrée into evolving auto industry

Changing times in the automotive industry might send one or two of the long dominant players the way of the dinosaurs. But Fisker Automotive's announcement of its swoopy new Karma plug-in hybrid four-door suggests they'll also usher in plenty of new names.

The Californian coachbuilder will officially unveil the Karma -- a low-slung sedan from the Maserati Gran Turismo mould -- at the 2009 North American International Motor Show in Detroit in January. It goes to market at a base price of US$87,900.

As unprecedented upheaval plunges the global Big Three into a struggle for survival, there's opportunity aplenty opening up for new players. Particularly, it seems, at the glamorous end of the market, a niche that's always had a pool of cashed up buyers looking for something different.

First into this territory was California-based Tesla Motors with its all-electric Roadster, produced in cohorts with Lotus. With the press releases and pictures streaming forth during 2006 and 2007, it wasn't long before the denizens of Hollywood and Forbes -- George Clooney, Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Hyatt heir Nicholas Pritzker, sportswear designer Julie Chaiken -- were stumping up their non-refundable US$5000 deposits to join the 12-month queue for something greener, faster, rarer and prettier than that other song of Beverley Hills humility, the Toyota Prius.

Now comes Fisker with something in the same league but different -- a four-door sedan combining dual electric traction motors with a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine. The electric motors produce a combined 304kW and 1300Nm of torque. With another 194kW from the turbocharged direct injection petrol engine, Fisker claims the 2100 kg Karma sprints to 100 kph in six seconds, going on to a sustained top speed of 200km/h.

And if any further evidence is needed that this sector is valuable real estate in the auto industry, they've already begun squabbling, with Tesla suing Fisker in 2008 for theft of trade secrets. Unsuccessfully, as it turned out.

So watch this space -- in the next few years you'll see a fair few new names parking product in it.