Fisker puts fists up with Chevy Volt and Tesla Roadster

In truly capitalist fashion, Fisker Automotive is breaking the bank and clouding up the electric car competition with not only the release of its luxury electric sports car, but also the promise of developing affordable electric sedans.

Previously, big name hybrid car companies knew their place in the market. Tesla had control of the upscale market with the sleek and speedy Roadster; Chevy had control of the mid-scale market with the trendy and sporty Volt, and Toyota had control of the affordable market with the practical and efficient Prius.

Now consumers face a barrage of hybrids from just about every small and big car company. Promises of "better" and "best" circulate the globe every couple of weeks making it difficult for the standard consumer to make sense of it all, and Fisker is certainly not helping.

Recently, Fisker was awarded a low interest loan for $528.7 million from the Department of Energy. According to Fisker's press release, the money will go towards finishing the Fisker Karma, a model very similar to the Tesla Roadster, and to a next generation hybrid that is to compete at around $39,000.

In other words, Fisker is investing big to step into the ring with Tesla and Chevy in hopes of capturing some of the market share. So do the Fisker cars compete?

At this point, it is too early to tell what sort of specs the $39,000 model will offer and until those specs are released and verified, no comparison should receive any sort of merit. The Fisker Karma, however, is nearing the home stretch and pending the additional funding, should hit the streets soon and allow consumers to test drive the two cars side-by-side.

Unfortunately, the competition is not as stiff as many were hoping for when the two were being compared for legal reasons. Although both cars have great bodies and equivalent top speeds, the Karma just can't keep up in the other categories.

The sheer power of the Tesla blows the Karma away with a 4 second 0-60 versus the 6 second 0-60 of the Karma. The battery lives, although both lithium-ion, aren't a fair comparison either.

The Karma offers 50 miles per charge and a fuel economy of about 100 mpg while the Tesla reaches about 220 miles per charge and has no use for gasoline. If consumers can see past the beauty of the Karma model, Fisker will have a hard time grabbing any of the market share with the specs it is indicating now.

Lets hope the $39,000 Fisker electric sedan can compete with the popular models like the Volt or that too will be knocked out as soon as it steps in the ring.