Middle East goes electric with Karma

Speaking at the Chicago Auto Show, Henrik Fisker said sales of his company’s $100,000-plus Karma plug-in hybrid luxury sedan are starting in the Middle East. Fisker now has a dealer in UAE and 12 Karmas have been ordered, said the Danish-born car designer, whose career has included spells at BMW, Ford and Aston Martin before founding Fisker Automotive in 2007.

So far some 2,000 Karmas have been sold to customers in the U.S. and Europe. One of the more unusual customers, said Fisker, is the environment  minister of Saudi Arabia, who imported a Karma from the U.S.

“If you had told me a few years ago that I would be selling a hybrid electric vehicle in the Middle East, I would have laughed,” said Fisker. “But it’s true.”