Danish Crown Prince to Drive the Fisker Karma

The first individual outside the Fisker development team to drive the Fisker karma plug-in hybrid will be Denmark’s Crown Prince HRH Frederik. Fisker Automotive is led by Danish auto designer Henrik Fisker, who also designed the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9 and Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

The Danish royalty will travel to the COP15 UN Climate Conference events in Copenhagen tomorrow with the eco-friendly car.

The company was recently approved for a USD 528.7-million conditional loan from the U.S. Government and announced its intent to purchase an assembly plant from General Motors.

The majority of the funds will go to Project NINA, in charge of the design, engineering and assembly of Fisker’s next generation of plug-in hybrids. The rest will go to the research and development of the Fisker Karma, the company’s first car that will form the basis of lower cost models.

It is estimated some 821 million gallons of gasoline will be saved and 8 million tons of CO2 offset from sales of Fisker plug-in hybrids through 2016, based on SAE J2841 Electrical Usage Statistics.

The prototype version of the Karma can travel 80km (50miles) emission-free on a single charge of its Lithium-ion battery, and an additional 400km (250mi) on a range extending generator turned by a four-cylinder gas engine.

Fuel economy is 2.4L/100km and emissions of just 83g/km CO2. Still, the Karma can reach 100km/h (62mph) in about 6 seconds and exceed 200km/h (125mph).