L.A. Auto Show 2019: Meet the BMW-Powered Karma Revero GTS

Karma Automotive relies on an i8 drivetrain to give life to its reborn, high-performance Fisker.

We’re live at the L.A. Auto Show, hot on the trail of everything new and exciting for BMW fans. Surprisingly, the most exciting thing we’ve found for you so far doesn’t even wear a BMW badge.

Karma Automotive is a company based in Southern California. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because they’ve picked up the pieces of the failed Fisker Karma project and updated the car.

Fisker was started by Henrik Fisker, whose design work should be familar to all lovers of Bavarian iron. He styled the iconic Z8, arguably the most beautiful BMW of the modern era. The Karma Revero, as it’s now called, hasn’t been updated much from the original Fisker design.

It really speaks to the man’s skills that his design still looks modern in this day and age. As you’ll soon learn, though, the styling isn’t the only link to BMW.

In addition to twin electric motors, the Revero GTS is packing a twin-turbo BMW powerplant. More specifically, the 3-cylinder Twin Power Turbo engine found on the i8 hybrid sports car.

The Revero GTS joins the Revero GT as a high-performance model. Karma’s Revero GT is already an impressive performer in its own right, given that it’s more or less an updated version of the Fisker Karma.

The Revero GTS takes things to the next level, though. The car can reach 60 miles per hour in just 3.9 seconds, when using launch control. The launch control system in the Revero GTS will briefly transform the speedometer into a stopwatch, clicking off the seconds until the car reaches 60 miles per hour.

We appreciate fun features like that in our cars. What we also appreciate is the 536 horsepower and 635 lb/ft of torque on tap from both power systems. The Revero GTS also boasts a 360-mile range, with up to 80 of those miles coming from electric power alone.

The Karma Revero GTS is set to go on sale next year, with a base price of $149,950. Better get those orders in soon.

Photos by Derin Richardson for 5 Series.net

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Cameron Vanderhorst

Cam VanDerHorst has been a contributor to Internet Brands' Auto Group sites for over three years, with his byline appearing on Ford Truck Enthusiasts, Corvette Forum, JK Forum, and Harley-Davidson Forums, among others. In that time, he's also contributed to Autoweek, The Drive, and Scale Auto Magazine.
He bought his first car at age 14 -- a 1978 Ford Mustang II -- and since then he’s amassed an impressive and diverse collection of cars, trucks, and motorcycles, including a 1996 Ford Mustang SVT Mystic Cobra (#683) and a classic air-cooled Porsche 911.
In addition to writing about cars and wrenching on them in his spare time, he enjoys playing music (drums and ukulele), building model cars, and tending to his chickens.
You can follow Cam, his cars, his bikes, and his chickens at @camvanderhorst on Instagram.
When he's not busy working on his Harley-Davidson bike, the vastly experienced writer has covered an array of features, reviews, how-tos, op-eds and news stories for Internet Brands' Auto Group and is also a co-founder and co-host of the popular podcast Cammed & Tubbed.

Check him out on Instagram at: Camvanderhorst.

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