By Michael dEstries
The man largely credited with turning the Toyota Prius into a bonafide celebrity is about to add a bit more green to his garage.
Fisker Motors announced last week that Leonardo DiCaprio will be the first to receive keys to a 2011 Fisker Karma plug-in hybrid – an honor that plac es him ahead of more than 3,000 others, including Al Gore and Colin Powell.
According to an interview given by the car’s inventor, Henrik Fisker, DiCaprio is actually credited with providing a bit of inspiration for the brand.
“A couple of years ago it started, by people who were maybe a little ahead of their time,” he told Reuters in 2009. “You saw some movie starts like Leonardo DiCaprio buying a Prius… He could have bought any car in the world, and I remember seeing that on television and thinking to myself, you know, when you’ve got a guy who could buy any Ferrari or Rolls Royce and he’s buying a Prius, you know something is changing dramatically.”
The nearly $100K vehicle is capable of running for up to 50 miles on its lithium-ion battery pack, after which a 260-horsepower, 2.0-liter engine switches on to generate electricity.
Article courtesy of ecorazzi.com