Eco-Luxury Automobiles

Imagine racing along the highway in a luxury sports car with the wind in your hair and a powerful, roaring beast of an engine under the hood – with one exception.  The engine isn’t roaring, it’s being powered by a mix of solar and electric energy without compromising a bit of the sports car’s speed. For sustainably-minded sports car fanatics, this dream come true has arrived in the form of two revolutionary, luxury car companies – Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors.

The Fisker Karma

The Fisker Karma is an $88,000 hybrid electric roadster designed by Henrik Fisker, legendary car designer whose artwork has been realized in the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage as well as the Tramonto and Latigo CS. Tired of the bland design evident in the hybrid cars that were on the market, Fisker set out to ‘deliver a beautiful car that makes environmental sense.’ The result was the Karma, with the height of a Porsche 911, length of a Mercedes CLS and the width of a BMW 7 series. A sleek design paired with the Karma’s sustainably sourced luxury interior (wood trim from fallen trees, naturally recycled sand that creates faceted EcoGlass, bamboo viscose and sustainable hand-wrapped leather) make the zippy electric sports car simply irresistible.

The Tesla Roadster

Like the Karma, Tesla’s version of electric-chic shatters stereotypes with sleek European styling and power to match. The sexy little car is an engineering delight with its rechargeable lithium ion laptop batteries that power the car 220 miles on a single charge. Not to mention its carbon-fiber body originally based on a Lotus Elise, or its specially designed comfort seats. The Tesla Roadster is much like the stealth bomber of sports cars; it flies silently, accelerating from 0 to 60 in a mere 3.9 seconds.

Last year the first batch of in-demand $98,000 roadsters were been delivered to their owners, many of whom are household names: Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Downey Jr. and Kelsey Grammer. Still awaiting the delivery of their Teslas are hundreds more electric car aficionados who have deposited $50,000 or more for a spot on the 2009 waiting list. Want to get in on the action? Just add your name to the bottom of the list.