Marques McCammon has quite a bit to show. He’s president of Karma Automotive, a place he started in 2023, taking the lead of an organization that’s had a turbulent historical past, to say the least. He has an aspirational objective: to make Karma into America’s ultra-luxury car producer. “There’s not an Aston, Ferrari, McLaren, or Lamborghini class of car within the US,” he says.
This could be one more reboot for a corporation born out of Henrik Fisker’s failure. No, not that failure, however the one which got here earlier than. The Fisker Karma launched in 2012 and was immediately heralded for being one of many best-looking and most-innovative grand touring vehicles on the planet.
Reward didn’t result in success. The model went bankrupt only a 12 months later, its property offered off and relaunched as Karma Automotive in 2016. Its main product continues to be mainly that very same automobile, although it’s gone via a number of title modifications. What was initially the Karma grew to become the Revero, then fell sufferer to an alphanumeric rebranding to GS-6 in 2021. At this time, it’s simply Revero once more.
”There’s not an Aston, Ferrari, McLaren, or Lamborghini class of car within the US.”
It’s a turbulent historical past for a automobile with an fascinating structure, a collection hybrid design that paired comparatively small battery packs of varied sizes smaller than 30kWh, relying on configuration, with a 1.5-liter, three-cylinder engine sourced from BMW.
That engine, although, didn’t flip the wheels. It solely supplied sufficient further electrical energy to increase the Karma’s vary out to 360 miles. Just a few different vehicles, just like the Chevrolet Volt and BMW i3, experimented with this method, but it surely by no means actually caught on.
At this time, the collection hybrid is instantly fashionable, although now known as an prolonged vary EV or EREV. Ram is positioning its Ramcharger, with an onboard 3.6-liter V6, as an answer for giant towing vary with out a gigantic battery. Likewise, Scout Motors says its optionally available Harvester EREV is the answer for potential patrons affected by untimely vary anxiousness.
However Karma Automotive, née Fisker, was doing it earlier than it was cool, and McCammon says the EREV’s time has lastly come. He factors to the Chinese language market as proof. “BYD got here in with EREV, their highest promoting items have been EREV autos, and so they have been consuming market share away from all of the BEV guys, Tesla specifically,” he says. (BYD offered 4.2 million autos globally in 2024, greater than twice as many as Tesla.)
McCammon hopes to capitalize on that momentum, refocusing the corporate’s efforts round EREVs. Karma had beforehand introduced the launch of a completely electrical mannequin known as Kaveya, ditching the vary extender for an even bigger battery and 1,000 horsepower price of electrical motors. That automobile, now, isn’t coming till 2027.
McCammon says this isn’t a delay, however a response to market demand. Karma will convey out its full EV after different gamers within the premium luxurious efficiency house convey theirs to the occasion. “We all know {that a} sure firm that likes the colour purple and prancing horses is popping out with an EV. So we’re going to maneuver our EV sports activities coupe to be simply behind them,” he says.
For those who’re going to fast-follow, Ferrari’s an excellent one to shadow.
So it’s out with the Kaveya and in with the Amaris, which debuts at this time. It’s an EREV just like the Revero however powered by a brand new engine. The three-cylinder, BMW-sourced unit is out, changed by a four-cylinder that McCammon says affords extra energy and character.
“So that you consider Shelby’s Cobra, the Viper, the facet port of exhaust is sort of an American signature,” McCammon says. “In order that’s one thing we’re going to convey again.”
Up to now, the small-displacement engines in collection hybrids would drone alongside at a set RPM — a pace chosen for effectivity, not for acoustics. The result’s a grating sound that producers historically attempt to conceal, not spotlight.
“We all know {that a} sure firm that likes the colour purple and prancing horses is popping out with an EV.”
That engine will cost batteries with a brand new chemistry optimized for frequent charging and discharging, and the automobile will provide full energy till there’s lower than 5 miles of vary left within the battery pack. “If I can’t take it to the observe and do a few laps round it and luxuriate in myself, then it’s sort of a waste,” McCammon says.
The sourcing of these batteries, although, may show problematic. Whereas Karma builds its personal battery packs at its Moreno Valley, California, manufacturing unit, it buys the person cells from a provider. McCammon says that Karma will cease sourcing cells from China by the tip of the 12 months, and whereas the brand new provider is nearer to house, it’s not home.
“I truthfully didn’t anticipate questioning about tariffs inside the Americas,” McCammon says, a typical chorus proper now throughout quite a few industries. The present commerce conflict of retaliatory tariffs with US neighbors to the north and south may complicate Karma’s plans.
That might lead to larger costs, however the Amaris might be a considerably dearer automobile regardless. Although its general structure and design are just like the Revero, it’s set to be extra premium throughout the board, together with a physique made from carbon fiber slightly than aluminum, higher supplies on the inside, and a bunch of latest tech.
There’s a showy new 4K show contained in the cabin and a brand new system structure for the drivetrain system counting on fewer, extra highly effective processors. McCammon says these chips would solely come from a US supply, however given his time at former Intel subsidiary Wind River, and given Karma’s prior agreements with the corporate, the Amaris having Intel inside looks as if a protected guess.
The Amaris is about to go on sale late subsequent 12 months, when it is going to be a part of one other new mannequin, the Gyesera, a protracted and low grand tourer that may change the Revero. Gyesera was initially deliberate to be an EV, however it is going to as a substitute keep the EREV course like its predecessor.
Gyesera goes into manufacturing someday earlier than the Amaris, which means Karma goes to need to soldier on for the remainder of 2025 with the Revero. This 12 months marks its ultimate run of 160 vehicles, 30 in a higher-end Invictus trim, with upgraded Ohlins suspension, greater wheels, and sufficient different goodies to boost its worth to $185,000.
That’s a major bump over the bottom Revero’s worth of $123,100 and a number of money for a automobile that’s mainly 13 years outdated. However then you’ll be able to spend as a lot on a brand new Tesla Mannequin S, a machine that’s likewise considerably the identical because it was in 2012.
But it surely’s the Amaris that actually marks the true approach ahead for the model. Subsequent 12 months looks like a great distance off, given how lengthy the corporate has been promising new and thrilling issues. Skeptical? McCammon says he doesn’t blame you, however he’s right here to vary your thoughts.
“Usually, within the auto trade, we maintain our plans actually near the vest, and we solely allow you to see it proper after we’re about to ship. I’m selecting to place the imaginative and prescient on the market, so everybody sees precisely the place I’m going, and mainly put my neck on the road,” he says. “Maintain me accountable.”