**The Karma GS6: A Hybrid Electric Vehicle with a BMW Twist**

The Karma GS6 is an extended range electric vehicle, similar to the Chevy Volt in its series hybrid design. This means that the gas engine never directly drives the wheels, instead serving as an on-board generator for the electric propulsion system. When you floor it, the gas engine can get loud enough to be heard, and while it's not a traditional driving experience, it's still fun to feel the power of the vehicle.

As I drove the GS6, I couldn't help but think that it feels like a BMW i8 due to its three-cylinder engine. The inherent imbalance of the engine is music to my ears, making it sound unique and enjoyable. In sport mode, which you can activate by pressing a paddle, the car comes alive with a newfound sense of energy. While driving around town, you can keep the vehicle soft and simple, but if you want to feel the performance of the GS6, switching to sport mode is the way to go.

Inside the driver's seat, I was pleased to find that it's comfortable and well-appointed. The leather trim and carbon fiber accents give the interior a premium feel, and the infotainment system is user-friendly with a nice graphical design. The display in the gauge cluster is particularly noteworthy, with a synth wave-inspired aesthetic that's both visually striking and functional.

One of the notable features of the GS6 is its switch from a GM Ecotec engine to a BMW three-cylinder motor. While it may not be for everyone, I think this change was a good choice, offering a distinct character to the vehicle that sets it apart from other hybrids on the market. The brakes are responsive and well-calibrated, making for a smooth and enjoyable driving experience.

**Backseat Comfort: A Mixed Bag**

The backseat of the GS6 is an interesting case study. While it's improved over previous iterations, it still feels a bit cavernous and isolated due to the pillar running along its length. There's more legroom than I remembered from my last time in one of these vehicles, but it's still not ideal for long trips.

**Performance: Quick and Efficient**

The GS6 is certainly quick, with a 0-60mph time that falls in the mid-three second range. The performance pack model can eke out an even quicker 3.5 seconds to 60, but the base GS6 comes close at around 4.5 seconds. While it may not be as fast as some other hybrids or electric vehicles on the market, the GS6's quickness is well-suited for everyday driving and commuting.

**Charging: DC Fast Charging Capabilities**

One of the standout features of the GS6 is its ability to support DC fast charging. With a 45-kilowatt station, the vehicle can go from empty to 90% in just 35 minutes. While Level 2 charging will still take around four hours to fully recharge the battery, the GS6's DC fast charging capabilities make it an attractive option for those who need to top up on the go.

**Pricing: A More Affordable Option**

Compared to its predecessor, the Karma Rivero, the GS6 is a much more affordable option. With a starting price of $83,900, the GS6 is priced lower than many other hybrids and electric vehicles in its class. The GS6L, which adds luxury features like leather upholstery and carbon fiber accents, starts at $93,900, while the GS6S, with its sporty trim and unique styling cues, begins at $103,900. Before incentives, the vehicle we're testing today would cost around $114,000.

**Looking Ahead: The Karma GS-E6 and GX1**

Karma is looking to expand its lineup with the upcoming GS-E6, a full battery electric version of the GS6. Starting at $80,000, this will be an attractive option for those who want a zero-emission vehicle without breaking the bank. Additionally, the company's upcoming GX1 SUV model will also receive a full battery electric version and extended range electric hybrid variant. With these new models, Karma is poised to become a more formidable player in the burgeoning electric vehicle market.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enby now you likely know the basics of the story of the car behind me it was formed by a company called fisker and the car was called the karma that company went bankrupt and a group stepped in to buy the assets and create karma automotive and their car was called the rivero now it is being reborn again as the gs6 we're talking a lower price point new power and some pretty cool options but is the karma gs6 a plug-in hybrid worth your time let's dive in and find out first let's talk looks this thing looks really similar to the rivero gt because it's basically the same thing except the rivero gt is now going more upmarket karma is keeping it big at each corner as the standard wheel size is a 21 inch roller and there are 22 inch wheels optionally available one of the optional wheels is actually a set from hre which is pretty damn fancy and expensive as hell costing almost 10 000 for the set the 21 inch wheels use low rolling resistance tires for better range but the 22s use goodyear eagle f1 for a more engaging experience the overall style is definitely polarizing and it's a vehicle that gets noticed in traffic i should know as i see these things literally every day as i live basically around the corner from the north american headquarters and they still managed to catch my eye on the inside karma has done a really good job making the gs6 feel more luxurious than i remember the fisker karma feeling fit and finish all the stuff it looks good it feels good in fact the gs6l which is the luxury trim uses bridge of wear leather which is top-notch stuff still it's tight in here especially for those in the rear seats but as far as tech goes we have a 10.2 inch screen up front and the gs6 comes standard with android auto and apple carplay also there are paddle shifters here too which seems odd for a car with a single speed gearbox that's because the paddles are used to control the different driving modes and the levels of regenerative braking regarding the drive modes stealth is full electric while sport is the most aggressive and sustain lives somewhere between the two for power the gs6 ditches the old setup and swaps in a one and a half liter three cylinder turbo engine sourced from bmw now that pairs with a 28 kilowatt hour battery pack and a pair of electric motors the engine doesn't drive the wheels this is a series hybrid similar to the chevy volt the engine serves as a range extender the electric motors drive the rear wheels and will do so for up to 80 miles then the gas engine can kick on and keep the juice flowing via the on-board generator power output is an impressive horsepower and 550 pound-feet of torque then there's the gs6s sport trim which pushes torque even further to 650 pound-feet so out on the road it drives very much like an ev and it should because it is a plug-in hybrid but it is an extended range electric vehicle so what does that mean well it means it's much like the chevy volt in that it is a series hybrid so the gas engine never directly drives the wheels the gas engine is there to serve as an on-board generator for the electric propulsion system now if you floor it you can get the gas engine to get loud enough so that you can hear it which is kind of fun i actually like the way three cylinder engines sound the inherent imbalance of them is kind of music to my ears so it's kind of cool for a second where it revs up it feels like a bmw i8 which i mean it kind of should because uh that is a bmw three cylinder but the just general around town drivingness of it you can keep it soft and simple or put into the sport mode i have it in sport mode which you grab by the paddle but i'm gonna go back to stealth and it just kind of cruises along like an ev should inside the driver's seat is comfortable i'm happy to report that because i haven't been in one of these since the company was fisker it's been a very long time since i've driven one of these back one is the fisker karma then in karma rivero and now this is the karma gs6 the fit and finish looks and feels nice i'm glad they dropped the price point but all the leather looks good a little bit of carbon fiber looks good the buttons on the steering wheel seem to work fine uh i'm i'm fine with the infotainment i think the graphical look of it is really nicely done and it responds quick enough to touch they're doing something different and i really like the display in the gauge cluster there's a cool almost synth wave vibe to the constant power output display if you punch it it rises up you let off it can go negative for uh because you're regen breaking at that point i think they've done some good design work to clean this thing up a bunch since the last time i drove one of these a long time ago the switch to the bmw three cylinder is probably a good choice over the gm ecotec as well the brakes are responsive i have no negative reports about the driving experience itself because i get to sit in the driver's seat the driver's seat is very comfortable really nicely bolstered now the back seat is improved over the last time i was in one of these but it is still kind of cavernous back there in a bad way and that the you know the pillar is running right by your head and you're kind of uh sequestered into this space back there i think there's more leg room than i remember from the the prior iteration of these but i still would not want to be there on a long trip but up here punch it and goes karma says the sportiest version of these with the performance pack will run from 0 to 60 in the uh i think mid three second range three and a half seconds this is a gs6 l so it doesn't have the performance pack doesn't get all the torque but i think karma lifts it at four and a half seconds to 60 but in reality it's closer to right around four flat which is i mean that's really quick the gs6 has a pair of fuel doors one for gas and one for electricity and interestingly enough the karma gs6 supports dc fast charging which is not something you typically see on a plug-in hybrid at a 45 kilowatt station the gs6 will go from empty to 90 in just 35 minutes a level 2 charger will go from 0 to 100 in four hours prior to the gs6 the rivero existed in a weird place true eevee loyalists with a taste for luxury were buying teslas and they're now buying audis and porsches karma was reaching a bit too high with the rivero and its insane starting price of 145 000. the karma gs6 drops that way back the gs6 starts at 83 900. the gs6l which is the luxury trim with the fancy leather is 93 900 and the gs6s which is the sport version is 103 900. that's before any state or federal incentives mind you this version we're testing here is about 114 000 thanks to those oh so fancy wheels from here karma is hoping to get a few more people interested in the brand and one of the ways they're going to do that is with the upcoming full battery electric version of this called the gs e6 which starts at 80 000 then after that is the volume model the gx1 which is their suv version which is also getting a full battery electric version and an extended range electric hybrid so stay tuned to see what more is coming from karma down the road youby now you likely know the basics of the story of the car behind me it was formed by a company called fisker and the car was called the karma that company went bankrupt and a group stepped in to buy the assets and create karma automotive and their car was called the rivero now it is being reborn again as the gs6 we're talking a lower price point new power and some pretty cool options but is the karma gs6 a plug-in hybrid worth your time let's dive in and find out first let's talk looks this thing looks really similar to the rivero gt because it's basically the same thing except the rivero gt is now going more upmarket karma is keeping it big at each corner as the standard wheel size is a 21 inch roller and there are 22 inch wheels optionally available one of the optional wheels is actually a set from hre which is pretty damn fancy and expensive as hell costing almost 10 000 for the set the 21 inch wheels use low rolling resistance tires for better range but the 22s use goodyear eagle f1 for a more engaging experience the overall style is definitely polarizing and it's a vehicle that gets noticed in traffic i should know as i see these things literally every day as i live basically around the corner from the north american headquarters and they still managed to catch my eye on the inside karma has done a really good job making the gs6 feel more luxurious than i remember the fisker karma feeling fit and finish all the stuff it looks good it feels good in fact the gs6l which is the luxury trim uses bridge of wear leather which is top-notch stuff still it's tight in here especially for those in the rear seats but as far as tech goes we have a 10.2 inch screen up front and the gs6 comes standard with android auto and apple carplay also there are paddle shifters here too which seems odd for a car with a single speed gearbox that's because the paddles are used to control the different driving modes and the levels of regenerative braking regarding the drive modes stealth is full electric while sport is the most aggressive and sustain lives somewhere between the two for power the gs6 ditches the old setup and swaps in a one and a half liter three cylinder turbo engine sourced from bmw now that pairs with a 28 kilowatt hour battery pack and a pair of electric motors the engine doesn't drive the wheels this is a series hybrid similar to the chevy volt the engine serves as a range extender the electric motors drive the rear wheels and will do so for up to 80 miles then the gas engine can kick on and keep the juice flowing via the on-board generator power output is an impressive horsepower and 550 pound-feet of torque then there's the gs6s sport trim which pushes torque even further to 650 pound-feet so out on the road it drives very much like an ev and it should because it is a plug-in hybrid but it is an extended range electric vehicle so what does that mean well it means it's much like the chevy volt in that it is a series hybrid so the gas engine never directly drives the wheels the gas engine is there to serve as an on-board generator for the electric propulsion system now if you floor it you can get the gas engine to get loud enough so that you can hear it which is kind of fun i actually like the way three cylinder engines sound the inherent imbalance of them is kind of music to my ears so it's kind of cool for a second where it revs up it feels like a bmw i8 which i mean it kind of should because uh that is a bmw three cylinder but the just general around town drivingness of it you can keep it soft and simple or put into the sport mode i have it in sport mode which you grab by the paddle but i'm gonna go back to stealth and it just kind of cruises along like an ev should inside the driver's seat is comfortable i'm happy to report that because i haven't been in one of these since the company was fisker it's been a very long time since i've driven one of these back one is the fisker karma then in karma rivero and now this is the karma gs6 the fit and finish looks and feels nice i'm glad they dropped the price point but all the leather looks good a little bit of carbon fiber looks good the buttons on the steering wheel seem to work fine uh i'm i'm fine with the infotainment i think the graphical look of it is really nicely done and it responds quick enough to touch they're doing something different and i really like the display in the gauge cluster there's a cool almost synth wave vibe to the constant power output display if you punch it it rises up you let off it can go negative for uh because you're regen breaking at that point i think they've done some good design work to clean this thing up a bunch since the last time i drove one of these a long time ago the switch to the bmw three cylinder is probably a good choice over the gm ecotec as well the brakes are responsive i have no negative reports about the driving experience itself because i get to sit in the driver's seat the driver's seat is very comfortable really nicely bolstered now the back seat is improved over the last time i was in one of these but it is still kind of cavernous back there in a bad way and that the you know the pillar is running right by your head and you're kind of uh sequestered into this space back there i think there's more leg room than i remember from the the prior iteration of these but i still would not want to be there on a long trip but up here punch it and goes karma says the sportiest version of these with the performance pack will run from 0 to 60 in the uh i think mid three second range three and a half seconds this is a gs6 l so it doesn't have the performance pack doesn't get all the torque but i think karma lifts it at four and a half seconds to 60 but in reality it's closer to right around four flat which is i mean that's really quick the gs6 has a pair of fuel doors one for gas and one for electricity and interestingly enough the karma gs6 supports dc fast charging which is not something you typically see on a plug-in hybrid at a 45 kilowatt station the gs6 will go from empty to 90 in just 35 minutes a level 2 charger will go from 0 to 100 in four hours prior to the gs6 the rivero existed in a weird place true eevee loyalists with a taste for luxury were buying teslas and they're now buying audis and porsches karma was reaching a bit too high with the rivero and its insane starting price of 145 000. the karma gs6 drops that way back the gs6 starts at 83 900. the gs6l which is the luxury trim with the fancy leather is 93 900 and the gs6s which is the sport version is 103 900. that's before any state or federal incentives mind you this version we're testing here is about 114 000 thanks to those oh so fancy wheels from here karma is hoping to get a few more people interested in the brand and one of the ways they're going to do that is with the upcoming full battery electric version of this called the gs e6 which starts at 80 000 then after that is the volume model the gx1 which is their suv version which is also getting a full battery electric version and an extended range electric hybrid so stay tuned to see what more is coming from karma down the road youby now you likely know the basics of the story of the car behind me it was formed by a company called fisker and the car was called the karma that company went bankrupt and a group stepped in to buy the assets and create karma automotive and their car was called the rivero now it is being reborn again as the gs6 we're talking a lower price point new power and some pretty cool options but is the karma gs6 a plug-in hybrid worth your time let's dive in and find out first let's talk looks this thing looks really similar to the rivero gt because it's basically the same thing except the rivero gt is now going more upmarket karma is keeping it big at each corner as the standard wheel size is a 21 inch roller and there are 22 inch wheels optionally available one of the optional wheels is actually a set from hre which is pretty damn fancy and expensive as hell costing almost 10 000 for the set the 21 inch wheels use low rolling resistance tires for better range but the 22s use goodyear eagle f1 for a more engaging experience the overall style is definitely polarizing and it's a vehicle that gets noticed in traffic i should know as i see these things literally every day as i live basically around the corner from the north american headquarters and they still managed to catch my eye on the inside karma has done a really good job making the gs6 feel more luxurious than i remember the fisker karma feeling fit and finish all the stuff it looks good it feels good in fact the gs6l which is the luxury trim uses bridge of wear leather which is top-notch stuff still it's tight in here especially for those in the rear seats but as far as tech goes we have a 10.2 inch screen up front and the gs6 comes standard with android auto and apple carplay also there are paddle shifters here too which seems odd for a car with a single speed gearbox that's because the paddles are used to control the different driving modes and the levels of regenerative braking regarding the drive modes stealth is full electric while sport is the most aggressive and sustain lives somewhere between the two for power the gs6 ditches the old setup and swaps in a one and a half liter three cylinder turbo engine sourced from bmw now that pairs with a 28 kilowatt hour battery pack and a pair of electric motors the engine doesn't drive the wheels this is a series hybrid similar to the chevy volt the engine serves as a range extender the electric motors drive the rear wheels and will do so for up to 80 miles then the gas engine can kick on and keep the juice flowing via the on-board generator power output is an impressive horsepower and 550 pound-feet of torque then there's the gs6s sport trim which pushes torque even further to 650 pound-feet so out on the road it drives very much like an ev and it should because it is a plug-in hybrid but it is an extended range electric vehicle so what does that mean well it means it's much like the chevy volt in that it is a series hybrid so the gas engine never directly drives the wheels the gas engine is there to serve as an on-board generator for the electric propulsion system now if you floor it you can get the gas engine to get loud enough so that you can hear it which is kind of fun i actually like the way three cylinder engines sound the inherent imbalance of them is kind of music to my ears so it's kind of cool for a second where it revs up it feels like a bmw i8 which i mean it kind of should because uh that is a bmw three cylinder but the just general around town drivingness of it you can keep it soft and simple or put into the sport mode i have it in sport mode which you grab by the paddle but i'm gonna go back to stealth and it just kind of cruises along like an ev should inside the driver's seat is comfortable i'm happy to report that because i haven't been in one of these since the company was fisker it's been a very long time since i've driven one of these back one is the fisker karma then in karma rivero and now this is the karma gs6 the fit and finish looks and feels nice i'm glad they dropped the price point but all the leather looks good a little bit of carbon fiber looks good the buttons on the steering wheel seem to work fine uh i'm i'm fine with the infotainment i think the graphical look of it is really nicely done and it responds quick enough to touch they're doing something different and i really like the display in the gauge cluster there's a cool almost synth wave vibe to the constant power output display if you punch it it rises up you let off it can go negative for uh because you're regen breaking at that point i think they've done some good design work to clean this thing up a bunch since the last time i drove one of these a long time ago the switch to the bmw three cylinder is probably a good choice over the gm ecotec as well the brakes are responsive i have no negative reports about the driving experience itself because i get to sit in the driver's seat the driver's seat is very comfortable really nicely bolstered now the back seat is improved over the last time i was in one of these but it is still kind of cavernous back there in a bad way and that the you know the pillar is running right by your head and you're kind of uh sequestered into this space back there i think there's more leg room than i remember from the the prior iteration of these but i still would not want to be there on a long trip but up here punch it and goes karma says the sportiest version of these with the performance pack will run from 0 to 60 in the uh i think mid three second range three and a half seconds this is a gs6 l so it doesn't have the performance pack doesn't get all the torque but i think karma lifts it at four and a half seconds to 60 but in reality it's closer to right around four flat which is i mean that's really quick the gs6 has a pair of fuel doors one for gas and one for electricity and interestingly enough the karma gs6 supports dc fast charging which is not something you typically see on a plug-in hybrid at a 45 kilowatt station the gs6 will go from empty to 90 in just 35 minutes a level 2 charger will go from 0 to 100 in four hours prior to the gs6 the rivero existed in a weird place true eevee loyalists with a taste for luxury were buying teslas and they're now buying audis and porsches karma was reaching a bit too high with the rivero and its insane starting price of 145 000. the karma gs6 drops that way back the gs6 starts at 83 900. the gs6l which is the luxury trim with the fancy leather is 93 900 and the gs6s which is the sport version is 103 900. that's before any state or federal incentives mind you this version we're testing here is about 114 000 thanks to those oh so fancy wheels from here karma is hoping to get a few more people interested in the brand and one of the ways they're going to do that is with the upcoming full battery electric version of this called the gs e6 which starts at 80 000 then after that is the volume model the gx1 which is their suv version which is also getting a full battery electric version and an extended range electric hybrid so stay tuned to see what more is coming from karma down the road you\n"