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Karma to sell its luxury plug-in hybrid car through eight U.S. dealerships

Workers weld the floor pans on the bodies of Revero electric cars at the Karma Automotive factory in Moreno Valley, California. Karma is the first car building company in Southern California in decades.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
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Karma Automotive said Monday it will start selling its luxury plug-in hybrid car this year at eight U.S. and two Canadian auto dealerships, including one in Pasadena.

Called the Revero, the four-door sedan runs on gasoline and electricity and is expected to cost $100,000 or more. It’s a would-be rival to the premium electric cars produced by Tesla Motors Inc.

The Revero was created from the remains of the Fisker Karma after Fisker Automotive fell into bankruptcy three years ago. The new Revero is being built at a factory in Moreno Valley in Riverside County.

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Karma said it signed agreements with independent dealers in Pasadena, Atlanta, Chicago, Fort Worth, Miami, Philadelphia, Detroit and West Palm Beach, Fla., along with dealers in Montreal and Toronto.

Karma, based in Costa Mesa, also plans to open a direct-sales center in an Orange County location yet to be announced.

“We spent the last year going through a long and complex process to ensure that our distribution strategy would live up to the exacting standards for luxury and service our customers will expect,” Joost de Vries, Karma’s vice president of sales and service, said in a statement.

Karma hopes to eventually build as many as 3,000 of the sleek, low-slung Reveros annually.

The company is backed by the Chinese auto-parts giant Wanxiang Group, which bought the Fisker Automotive assets in 2014.

The original Fisker Karma was built in Finland, and parts of that production line were broken down and shipped to the Moreno Valley facility.

james.peltz@latimes.com

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Twitter: @PeltzLATimes

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