2021 Karma GS-6 First Test: Meet the Studebaker Avanti 2.0

The Karma GS-6 is the 21st century's Studebaker Avanti. A stunning design based on some familiar mechanicals, built by a company that failed just a year into production, only to be revived by monied folks who felt the design was so compelling it needed to live. Back in 1965 it was two South Bend, Indiana, Studebaker dealers who revived Raymond Loewy's "Coke-bottle" coupe Avanti. These days it's Chinese company Wanxiang who purchased the rights and tooling for Henrik Fisker's "four-door Corvette," which he originally produced as the Fisker Karma.

An original Avanti powered by a supercharged 289 V-8 clocked a 178-mph top speed at Bonneville to reign as the planet's fastest production car for a hot minute, and yet Studebaker's tailspin persisted, with the factory closing after only 4,643 Avantis were built. The fetching Karma earned no world records, but its 403-hp performance was earning decent reviews when battery supplier A123 went bankrupt, crippling Fisker Automotive after the company built just 2,450 Karmas.

Wanxiang has revamped the car's mechanicals and interior fittings extensively in an effort to finish an engineering job that was incomplete when we first sampled a Fisker Karma in 2011. It eventually spawned convertible and four-door variants, and Karma Automotive plans to augment the familiar GS-6 plug-in hybrid and GSe-6 fully electric sedans (née Karma Revero, née Fisker Karma) with a GX-1 SUV as well as a Pininfarina-designed GT coupe, and maybe even production versions of the SC1 and SC2 concept cars shown at the 2019 Shanghai auto show. Production of the original Karma continued in fits and starts through March 2006, with about 3,000 cars built. Does this 2021 Karma GS-6 have what it takes to rival the Avanti's second act?

The bulk of Karma Automotive's reengineering efforts focused on the GS-6's powertrain, which now consists of a pair of 268-hp/225-lb-ft permanent-magnet electric motors powering the rear wheels, energized by a 28-kWh battery pack and a 228-hp/236-lb-ft turbocharged 1.5-liter BMW inline-three-cylinder engine spinning a generator. Total output is 536 hp and 550 lb-ft of torque; the original Fisker Karma made 403 hp and a somewhat spuriously claimed 959 lb-ft.

Our 5,095-pound test car weighed in 313 pounds lighter than the original, and it laid down an impressive 4.0-second run to 60 mph en route to a 12.6-second, 109.1-mph quarter mile. Those are big improvements over the original's 6.1 seconds and 14.8 at 95.3 mph. We were impressed by the Karma's launch-control system, which gives a red-light/green-light graphic, but even with the computer monitoring traction, the tail wiggles under hard acceleration.

The Karma's closest direct competitor is probably the PHEV Porsche Panamera 4 E Hybrid ($106,350 to start), which is slightly quicker (3.7/12.3 at 112.7). To better match the 2021 Karma GS-6's style and door count, a secondhand Aston Martin Rapide might be worth considering if you don't care about electrification and have the patience for slightly more leisurely acceleration (4.5/12.9 at 111.2).

The stopwatch numbers are respectable, but the decibel-meter readings while generating them are downright alarming. Flooring the accelerator in Sport mode lights the gas engine and revs it to 6,000 rpm almost immediately, creating a startling roar. And because the engine never connects to the wheels, there's a disconnect between the rough, unrefined, thrashy noise and the smooth, continuous electric acceleration that confuses your cortex.

Another problem normal owners may never notice unless they attend all-day track sessions: A 231-hp/236-lb-ft generator can't feed a 536-hp/550-lb-ft electric drivetrain indefinitely. When the battery is depleted, the car goes into a reduced-power limp mode until the thrasher up front replenishes the battery, or you stop and plug in. At least the Karma GS-6 supports DC fast charging at speeds up to 45 kW, which can bring it to 90 percent charge in 35 minutes.

Here again it betters the original Karma by 0.7 second on our figure-eight course, hanging on for 0.96 g (average) maximum lateral grip—up 0.04 g. We found the car possesses a nice natural attitude on the skidpad, where it demonstrated mild to moderate oversteer and a lurid slide on the exit. Overall, we found it quite entertaining and unlike anything we've ever driven, though it's certainly not for everyone.

Braking performance was strong, with stops from 60 mph requiring 105 feet—besting the Aston and Porsche—but because the brake pedal seems only somewhat related to the actual braking, it didn't inspire confidence. Both the Rapide and the Panamera match the GS-6's max lateral grip, but they both outperform it on the figure-eight.

Numbers are one thing, perception on a twisty road quite another. We noticed twitchy steering exacerbated by the car's weight, which made the 2020 Karma GS-6 feel like it was constantly at its limit. But we also enjoyed its quick steering, and body control was reasonable.

Most of our testers agreed the regenerative-braking integration needs work so it delivers more of it when you want, enabling one-pedal driving. The lack of finesse in the regenerative braking annoyed some of our drivers enough to turn the regen down and use the actual brake pedal, which suffers from a mushy feel.

Ride quality was variously described as firm, crusty, and decent, not great. Most agreed the overall racket in the cabin, from the engine and the big tires slapping the pavement, detracts from the luxury vibe.

Perhaps still not fully baked. We were pleasantly surprised by the leatherwork and soft-touch materials, including the area where you brace your knee. But even our shortest editors found the interior claustrophobic front and rear. You better plan to send the luggage ahead, too, as the tiny 6.4-cubic-foot trunk will barely accommodate a pair of roll-aboard suitcases. The price of fashion, is it?

Less forgivable is the dearth of features and amenities we all expect from cars costing half as much: things like proximity key unlocking, a power trunk (or even a button to open the trunk from the rear), height-adjustable seat belts, rear A/C vents, and USB charging for the rear passengers.

Our test car had numerous features that didn't work properly. The adaptive cruise control suffered a fault that flashed on the screen too quickly for us to read; the lane-keeping assist steered with jerky motions, veered toward nearby cars on occasion, and frequently drove itself across a line, only to buzz the steering wheel. We also got missing-key warnings with the fob in the cupholder, a brake fluid light came on temporarily and then disappeared for good, and there was so much wind noise, editors kept checking to see if a window was open.

If the Karma earned one absolute superlative, it's this: No other production vehicle we can recall has ever offered to depict more information on its infotainment screen. The Gauges option on the central screen offers 13 pages, each with between five and 10 analog-look gauges reporting 53 different parameters the car tracks. These range from traditional data (compass, g-meter circle, battery state of charge percentage) to innovative and useful (power to wheels, axle torque, requested braking torque and mechanical braking torque, yaw rate) to ridiculous (climb rate in feet per minute, HVAC pressure in kPa) to the absolutely inscrutable (radio signal in dBuV, LTE signal, GPS signal, and Bluetooth signal—with strengths expressed in dB).

Just have a look at this, and you'll get our point:

Priced at $108,700 as equipped, we mere car-tester types struggle mightily to imagine anyone justifying the purchase of this 2021 Karma GS-6. But rich people don't struggle with the price/value relationship the way we do. And for buyers smitten by the design, short enough in stature to get comfortable in the car, and wealthy enough to own lots of spare vehicles to use if or when this one goes on the blink, it's absolutely worth considering.

And if history is any guide, folks may have the opportunity to do so for decades to come. The Avanti rights and/or tooling were sold five times during that car's astonishing 45-year production run. Perhaps the 2021 Karma GS-6 will channel some similar cosmic karma?