2 00:00:15,940 --> 00:00:17,490 James wears a hat. 3 00:00:18,620 --> 00:00:21,110 And Richard is behind a low wall 4 00:00:27,170 --> 00:00:30,860 Thank you. Hello and thank you so much, everybody. 5 00:00:30,860 --> 00:00:33,610 Thank you. Thank you and welcome. 6 00:00:33,610 --> 00:00:39,610 Now, last week you may remember we asked James May to test an exciting, fast Vauxhall 7 00:00:39,610 --> 00:00:42,910 and he ended up reviewing a slow, small Fiat. 8 00:00:42,910 --> 00:00:48,450 Well, this week, we asked him to go to Florida and try out a new type of electric car. 9 00:00:48,450 --> 00:00:52,820 We said to him, "James, this time, can you try to stay on topic?" 10 00:01:02,940 --> 00:01:05,900 Here it is - it's called the Fisker Karma, 11 00:01:05,900 --> 00:01:10,130 and let's not be having any debate, it looks fantastic. 12 00:01:15,430 --> 00:01:16,870 But maybe that's not surprising, 13 00:01:16,870 --> 00:01:22,900 because the company that makes it was set up not by an engineer, as usual, but by a designer. 14 00:01:22,900 --> 00:01:29,170 He was responsible for the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and the BMW Z8 roadster, 15 00:01:29,170 --> 00:01:32,340 so obviously he knows his way around a pencil. 16 00:01:32,340 --> 00:01:38,210 But it's not the looks we're interested in. It's what goes on underneath that bodywork. 17 00:01:43,430 --> 00:01:48,160 As with most electric cars, underneath here is a great big slab of batteries, 18 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:51,060 and you can plug those into a socket at your house or your office 19 00:01:51,060 --> 00:01:55,090 and recharge them and then you have a range of 50 miles - 20 00:01:55,090 --> 00:01:57,020 which doesn't sound very good, does it? 21 00:01:57,020 --> 00:01:59,830 But then, if I just touch this lever here, 22 00:01:59,830 --> 00:02:03,740 I engage a two-litre petrol engine, which is under the bonnet. 23 00:02:03,740 --> 00:02:08,670 But unlike, say, a Toyota Prius, the engine isn't connected to the wheels. 24 00:02:08,670 --> 00:02:12,640 Instead, it drives an electricity generator. 25 00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:17,040 At this point, the display is telling me I only have nine miles of range left, 26 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:19,680 and normally I'd be going, "Oh, God, will I make it?" 27 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:24,480 But no, because I know, with the touch of that paddle, or even leaving it to its own devices, 28 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:27,370 the petrol engine will make more electric. 29 00:02:29,430 --> 00:02:35,610 So, it's driven by electric motors, but it has its own on-board power station. 30 00:02:35,610 --> 00:02:40,050 You might be thinking you've sort of heard something like that before. 31 00:02:40,050 --> 00:02:42,080 Well, you have. 32 00:02:44,290 --> 00:02:47,360 Yes, I'm talking about the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust, 33 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:52,130 which, I might point out, was also fitted with its own electricity generator - 34 00:02:52,130 --> 00:02:54,680 and that was two years ago. 35 00:02:56,570 --> 00:02:58,930 There is no polite way of putting this. 36 00:02:58,930 --> 00:03:03,740 Fisker have, very blatantly, brazenly, I'd say - 37 00:03:03,740 --> 00:03:06,630 copied my idea for a long range electric car. 38 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:09,060 Except they didn't have theirs styled by Jeremy, 39 00:03:09,060 --> 00:03:11,380 but the technology is exactly the same. 40 00:03:11,380 --> 00:03:15,380 As my lawyers will be making very clear quite soon. 41 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:20,250 Admittedly, the Fisker is much better built than the Eagle i-Thrust 42 00:03:20,250 --> 00:03:24,600 and it's probably the most politically correct car on earth. 43 00:03:25,140 --> 00:03:28,250 It has solar panels on the roof, because in the car, 44 00:03:28,250 --> 00:03:32,330 all this stuff here runs off electricity and that would drain the battery, 45 00:03:32,330 --> 00:03:35,900 but that can produce a sort of low-voltage circuit, if you like, 46 00:03:35,900 --> 00:03:41,920 that can drive the radio and the sat-nav, interior lights and your iPod, 47 00:03:41,920 --> 00:03:46,180 and even the little system that recognises this key - 49 00:03:53,330 --> 00:03:56,430 This version I have here is called the Eco-Chic - 50 00:03:56,430 --> 00:03:58,370 they have actually called it that, 51 00:03:58,370 --> 00:04:02,650 because it embraces a lot of very right-on and ethically-sound materials. 52 00:04:02,650 --> 00:04:05,670 For example, the glitter in the metallic paint 53 00:04:05,670 --> 00:04:09,770 is made with ground-up minute particles of recycled glass 54 00:04:09,770 --> 00:04:14,050 and on the inside, we find a piece of wood trim that is only taken 55 00:04:14,050 --> 00:04:18,640 from trees that have been burnt down in forest fires or felled by storms 56 00:04:18,640 --> 00:04:21,640 and it's not varnished, because there is no varnish in nature. 57 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:26,040 These glass inserts have in them a fossilised leaf - 58 00:04:26,040 --> 00:04:28,940 a leaf that has fallen of its own accord, not plucked. 59 00:04:28,940 --> 00:04:32,250 And all of the interior fabrics are very, very funky 60 00:04:32,250 --> 00:04:36,900 and most importantly, there are no animal products in there at all. 61 00:04:37,230 --> 00:04:40,280 The only animal product in this car is me, 62 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:44,240 all of which ought to keep this chap here very happy indeed, 63 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:47,430 and yet I'm told if I go any closer than this, 64 00:04:47,430 --> 00:04:49,440 he'll still probably have my leg off... 65 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:53,290 Which just goes to prove that animals are ungrateful. 66 00:04:56,110 --> 00:04:58,920 Basically, if the Fisker was any more green, 67 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,100 it would be chaining itself to a Japanese whaling ship. 68 00:05:02,870 --> 00:05:07,800 But I like being in it. It's just a very nice place to be, the Fisker - 69 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:12,970 it makes you realise that just putting leather on everything is a terrible old cliche 70 00:05:12,970 --> 00:05:15,370 it's what the Romans would have done. 71 00:05:16,110 --> 00:05:18,770 And on top of that, I like driving it. 72 00:05:18,770 --> 00:05:20,640 It's a nice-handling car, this. 73 00:05:20,640 --> 00:05:23,440 It's not a Lotus, it's not a Ferrari 458, 74 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:29,110 it's a GT car. It's a GT car for long journeys, but that's nice to drive. 75 00:05:29,110 --> 00:05:33,080 And even though its arsenal of batteries mean it weighs 2.5 tonnes, 76 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:35,010 it does shift along 77 00:05:37,170 --> 00:05:41,960 The car will do 0-60 in just a tad over six seconds. 78 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:46,010 It doesn't have a very high top speed - only 125mph - 79 00:05:46,010 --> 00:05:50,120 but the point is, electric motors produce excellent torque - 80 00:05:50,120 --> 00:05:52,880 1,000 pound-feet, in fact, which is more than a Veyron. 81 00:05:54,580 --> 00:06:00,070 I love electric-powered cars, just the sort of slight whining spaceship noise. 82 00:06:04,330 --> 00:06:07,730 Now, the price. All electric cars are expensive, 83 00:06:07,730 --> 00:06:12,070 and the Fisker - at 86,000 - is no exception. 84 00:06:12,070 --> 00:06:15,870 This means it'll appeal only to the well-heeled petrolhead, 85 00:06:15,870 --> 00:06:19,120 so since I was in Florida, I went to see one. 86 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:23,380 Hello there, James, me bonny lad. What brings you to this neck of the woods? 87 00:06:23,380 --> 00:06:27,040 Yes, it's AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson. 88 00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:30,010 It's the first car I think I've ever seen that actually looks like 89 00:06:30,010 --> 00:06:32,430 the drawings that you see before they come. 90 00:06:33,620 --> 00:06:34,500 Yeah, it's good-looking, isn't it? 91 00:06:34,500 --> 00:06:37,960 It really is a cracking-looking jam-jar, look at the state of that! 92 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:39,460 Do want to try it? Absolutely! 93 00:06:39,460 --> 00:06:41,850 Do you want to try mine? Yeah! All right, then. 94 00:06:41,850 --> 00:06:43,580 Well... Mine's different. 95 00:06:50,090 --> 00:06:51,510 Fantastic! 96 00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:59,170 This is a 1928 Le Mans-bodied 4.5-litre Bentley. 97 00:06:59,170 --> 00:07:01,530 Brian really does use this every day - 98 00:07:01,530 --> 00:07:05,320 he uses it to go down the shop for a pint of milk. 99 00:07:14,520 --> 00:07:17,360 Go on, me son! Born to do it! 100 00:07:17,930 --> 00:07:22,690 Despite the mangled gear changes, I was very much enjoying living in the past. 101 00:07:22,690 --> 00:07:25,380 I can feel a moustache growing! 102 00:07:27,640 --> 00:07:30,890 God, the smell is tremendous. Hot castor oil. 103 00:07:30,890 --> 00:07:34,030 Well-known laxative, I'll have diarrhoea by the time we get there. 104 00:07:34,030 --> 00:07:38,7...
Dolarkrik