Valmet in Finland to Produce "Instant" Karma?

(MoneyWatch)  Fisker Automotive named Valmet Automotive in Finland the manufacturer for its $80,000 Karma plug-in hybrid sports car.

The question of who would build the Karma has been hanging over the project since CEO Henrik Fisker, a former designer for BMW, unveiled the Karma at the Detroit auto show in January 2008. The immediate question now becomes what looks like a next-to-impossible target for starting retail deliveries -- before the end of 2009.

Valmet is well-known within the auto industry as a contract manufacturer for premium specialty cars. Valmet has been manufacturing Porsche Boxsters since 1997 and Porsche Caymans since 2005. Before that, it built convertibles for Saab for many years. Earlier this month, Valmet celebrated building its 200,000th Porsche.

But on June 26, Porsche announced it will not renew its current manufacturing agreement with Valmet beyond 2012. Porsche will switch to Magna Steyr in Graz, Austria. Losing Porsche may have made Valmet more eager to take on the Karma project. Fisker, with a target of 15,000 cars a year, will replace some of the lost Porsche business, and the high-tech nature of the Karma potentially makes it a feather in Valmet's cap.

Fisker says the Karma will be the first plug-in hybrid sports car. A plug-in hybrid can be recharged at home overnight or in a parking garage during the day, which increases the range over today's hybrids like the Toyota Prius, which recharge themselves with the onboard gasoline engine and regenerative brakes, which recaptures some energy while braking.

Fisker claims a range of more than 350 miles on a single charge, using both the battery and the internal combustion engine, fuel economy of more than 100 mpg, and a top speed of 125 mph.

Fisker's rival Tesla Motors is also building a battery-powered sports car and has plans for a plug-in hybrid. The latter is now the subject of a lawsuit between Tesla and Fisker.