Valmet to Produce Fisker’s Karma Luxury Hybrid

When Porsche announced that it would not be renewing its contract with Finnish production specialist, Valmet, many industry analysts wondered what would become of the plant. Since the launch of the Boxster in ‘97, over 200,000 units have been built in its production facility, and Porsche had become one of their best-known clients. It was announced recently that Magna Steyr of Austria would be handling production of the Boxster and Cayman after the year 2012.

What would become of Valmet? It certainly couldn’t shut down, certainly not after 40 years’ experience assembling automobiles as an independent. And it’s new business partner, Fisker, made sure it would live to see another day. Yes, Fisker, a coachworks company in and of itself, will become Valmet’s newest manufacturing partner with its Karma luxury performance hybrid sedan.

The first units of the Karma are expected to roll off the assembly line during fourth quarter of 2009 - a little more than a year away. Fisker projects the first years’ sales to top 15,000 units, which is impressive for a brand that hasn’t really sold many more than a few dozen of its super-expensive, rebodied Latigo and Tramonto sports cars.

Initially, Valmet will produce the world’s production volumes for the Karma, but as demand for the vehicle grows, Valmet will only produce international market automobiles. Fisker also announced that it intends to build a US production facility to cope with projected high demand.

Of the initial 15,000 unit run, half of the vehicles are expected to be shipped to North America for sale.