Just Curious:If I could convert your Karma to V8 would you do it

Hand raised.....

Put a ferrari v12 in and I am in. How are you going to do the integration with the DIS, CIU etc? If replace would likely need donor car if keep would need some way for all modules to talk to each other. Have not seen an operational bespoke DIS or CIU with Destino so unlikely they have went that far in their design.

Not me, I'm just looking forward to the powersource guys to improve the performance. Guys, my apologies for not spending the time to talk to this week in Los Gatos at lunch. I did talk to Pat and asked him to work with you for us norcal Fisker owners.

Not me. The ability to run the car as an EV was as much of a draw for me as the styling. Besides, I love visiting gas stations 3 or 4 times a year as opposed to 3 or 4 times a month.

Never. It would be an abomination, IMHO.

I would consider replacing the ICE with a Battery module or a hydrogen engine to generate electricity. Then allow the powersource guys to go to town, enhance the CIU, power to the RDM and lastly , modify the noise generation to align the acceleration with a lambo or Ferrari whine -- and it must be under 25K to retrofit -- a winner for these soon to be classic Karma's. Joe if your up to it, I'll buy a car under 50k and spend the extra 25K to get it to the state i described above. You and powersource in?

Joe, as I posted on your website, hybrids and PEVs are the future - if there's going to be any future.

I want to add that the Karma hits the sweet spot between a pure EV and a pure ICE. At the moment there are few (if any) hybrids that can compare.

By way of example, I was kicking tires at the BMW dealer a few weeks ago, and asked the salesman how the I3's motorcycle engine/generator (REx) in the trunk would perform climbing steep grades after the battery has been nearly depleted. He replied, "You might be able to maintain 50 mph." (Might is the operative word here.)

Fact check: According to the I3 Owner's Forum, at 2% SOC the max cruising speed on a level highway is 56 mph, but goes way down in cold weather and/or climbing hills. Some reported 25 mph or 0 when the car shut down.

Absolutely - the only issue is that suspect it would be too cost prohibitive.

Never.

unfortunately california's regulation (EVRx category) made the i3 useless for driving in the mountains for long.. the i3-rex can't complete a trip between SF the bay area and Tahoe unless it's ""hacked"" to perform like the bmw in europe.
here is a good read about it - http://www.bmwblog.com/2014/10/29/sf-bay-tahoe-bmw-i3-rex-learned/

Absolutely not. When I saw Lutz's proposal a number of years ago, I thought it really defeated the purpose of a Karma. I enjoy driving with little or no gasoline and CO2. That was the reason I bought it. I could have purchased a Panamera, but elected the Karma for looks and climate responsibility.

But, if you find someday that you have a bunch of cheap, functional battery modules just sitting around ...

P90XMC2 said:

unfortunately california's regulation (EVRx category) made the i3 useless for driving in the mountains for long.. the i3-rex can't complete a trip between SF the bay area and Tahoe unless it's ""hacked"" to perform like the bmw in europe.
here is a good read about it - http://www.bmwblog.com/2014/10/29/sf-bay-tahoe-bmw-i3-rex-learned/

Click to expand...

Actually, I'm pretty sure BMW addressed this months ago with a software update. You're still 100% correct that California's CARB rules resulted in compromises that can be bypassed with coding, but the particular issue of reduced power when climbing should have been resolved.

Source: My wife drives an i3 Rex

noway.. without the electric engine the car is just about design and i rather buy an aston martin in that case...


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I bought a Karma because of the electric motors. I would not change it but am hoping that the battery technology will finally lead to removing the engine and running on electric only with no range anxiety. There are a lot of companies working on the technology and all it will take is one breakthrough and the gas engine will be history.

Just replace the weight up front with batteries!

Depends on the cost but I absolutely would. I love my Karma, I'm not here to bash it, but with only 4,000 miles (I bought it new) I just trailered it to Dallas for a laundry list of problems & as a crazy coincidence, as I pulled it out of the garage to load it, there was a huge puddle of fluid coming out of the rear end. Karma will improve the car, no doubt, but this first run of cars will continue to have problems as they age, it was a poorly engineered car to begin with but is gorgeous & is a phenomenal driver & a car I will never sale, but I rarely drive it for fear of being broken down with the only csp a 600 mile round trip away, so yes, I would opt for a traditional drive train if it meant being able to actually enjoy the car vs worrying & the drive battery.....who knows the life span of that beast at this point & the cost to replace, which you can bet wont be cheap. I can drive emission free with full confidence in my Tesla, so bring on the V8 retrofit.

Only reason there is confidence in Model S, X Roadster is because of company backing it. They have had just as many issues, just well hidden. Depending on the vintage of your Model S the rear end has probably been replaced without you knowing it. I would venture a guess that the first 2500 cars to come out of FA are more reliable than the first 2500 that came out of Tesla. They just were able to pro-actively fix them via FOTA and other mechanisms (benefit of being completely vertically integrated- you can hide problems).

That's a very fair way to assess it. Wonder how we got such a reputation? Schadenfreuda?