Karma Automotive Officially Launches (Somewhat) Solar Assisted Revero

Solar powered? Not Quite | Image: Karma Automotive

Officially launched last week, the first Karma Revero Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) are making their way to dealers across the USA and Canada.

“Karma has moved from a product development company to an automotive manufacturer,” said Jim Taylor, Chief Revenue Officer of Karma Automotive. “We have completed the critical steps to become a true luxury vehicle OEM. The launch is a great accomplishment for our Company and all our team members.”

Designed, engineered, and assembled in California, the PHEV has three drive modes – Stealth (battery only), Sustain (generator only), Sport (battery and generator)

Revero has an electronically limited top speed of 125 mph (a whisker over 200 kph) and can accelerate from 0 – 97 kph in 5.4 seconds in Sport mode and 5.9 seconds in battery mode.

The vehicle has a mid-mounted lithium-ion HV battery (LiFePO4) with 21.4 kWh capacity. Lithium ion based energy storage is also the type used in many new generation solar batteries and LiFePO4 is considered among the most durable and safest in this group.

An onboard 6.6kW charger enables charging in 10 hours on 120V at 16 amps or 3 hours on 240 V at 32 amps, or to 80% in 24 minutes at a DC Fast Charging station. Apparently the Revero has an all-electric range of 50 miles (~80km).

The solar roof aspect caused a bit of controversy when announced last year with a spiel that required a little clarification. The solar panel roof actually only has 200W capacity. As to its capabilities:

“Leave your car at the airport for a week and drive home on the power of the sun,” Karma Automotive now says. “Drive 500 to 1000 miles per year on what Mother Nature provides.”

Valuable feature or gimmick? You be the judge.

As for the price, it’s one of those cars that if you need to ask how much it costs, you probably can’t afford it. I asked – USD $130K – and I certainly can’t afford it. All that tech, leather and hand painted badges don’t come cheap it seems.

Hardly a Tesla-killer, and it’s certainly not being marketed as such, no doubt some folks will still drop their hard-earned (or not) cash on a Revero. Whether enough will do so to sustain production remains to be seen, but the Karma Automotive team seem confident and best of luck to them. They’ve had quite a journey to get to this point.

You can view the Karma Revero brochure here (PDF). Yes, the car has beverage holders.