Fisker Issues its First Recall on Karma Over Battery Fire Risk

After it was revealed that A123 Systems Inc. discovered a "potential safety issue" in the batteries it supplies to Fisker Automotive, it was only a matter of time before the California-based automaker would issue a recall on the Karma, the first since the car launched onto the market this summer.

The maker of the extended-range plug-in hybrid model said the safety recall concerns a total of 239 2012MY Karma sedans built from July 1, 2011, through November 3, 2011.

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We Spy the New Mercedes-Benz CLS Shooting Brake on Film

At the Auto China motorshow in 2010, Mercedes-Benz previewed the design language of the current, second-generation CLS sports saloon with the Shooting Brake concept car, which generally received positive reviews.

It didn’t take long for the premium carmaker to announce its intention to expand the range of the CLS series with a second body style based on that study, while the company even confirmed that the Shooting Brake model would arrive in dealerships during 2012.

Over the months that followed, we saw several scoops of the CLS Shooting Brake, and now our spy shooters travelled all the way to northern Sweden to film the sleek five-door model during winter testing.

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Watch this 1,500HP Twin-Turbocharged Corvette Accelerate Like There's No Tomorrow

There's really fast, there's super-fast and then there's this twin-turbocharged Chevrolet Corvette C6 with some 1,500-raging-horses under its bonnet eager to be unleashed on the asphalt.

The crew from HighTechCorvette put together a new video of the bow-tie beast that made headlines when it trumped a twin-turbocharged 1,200HP Dodge Viper SRT10 on the road, showing the C6 accelerate from 50mph (80km/h) to a little over 170mph (274km/h) in just a few seconds.

Feel free to watch both video clips right after the jump

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Lancia Imperiale Design Concept by David Cardoso

If there's one European brand that has been in an identity crisis for many years, that is Lancia – and the Fiat Group's decision to drop a few Chrysler models including the 300 sedan and the Town & Country minivan into the Italian firm's range only made things worse.

One time the proud maker of sporty models with a pinch of luxury like the gorgeous Lancia Fulvia Coupe with its innovative narrow-angle V4 engine and let's not forget, also the holder of 10 world rally championships, Lancia is now struggling to find its place in today's automotive world.

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Japanese Gas Stations Begin to Offer EV Charging Services

With internal combustion-engined cars, whether they use gasoline or diesel, things are pretty simple: when you're low on fuel, you just drive up to a gas station and voila; fill up your car and continue your trip.

Electric vehicles are a different matter, though, and the ideal solution would be an EV-equivalent of the gas station.

And now, four Japanese oil wholesalers including Cosmo Oil, Idemitsu Kosan, JC Nippon Oil and Showa Shell Sekiyu KK, announced that they will do just that: they will install 27 charging stations in select gas stations between Tokyo and Kanagawa in the first three months of 2012.

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Chevy Volt and Fiat 500 Amongst Worst Product Flops of 2011, Says Report

A report on the seven worst product flops in the U.S. from 24/7 Wall Street that was re-posted on Yahoo Finance includes two vehicle introductions, the Chevrolet Volt and the Fiat 500.

According to the author of the report, Chevrolet's extended range electric vehicle made it on the list because it underperformed in sales while the fact that it is under investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for fires related to the car's lithium-ion batteries is also mentioned.

As for the 500, the article says that while the Italians expected to sell some 50,000 cars during its first year in the States, Fiat sold fewer than 12,000 from January through July, and that the company ousted its chief Laura Soave this past November. For the record, Fiat sold 15,826 examples of the coupe and the 500C through October.

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Great Balls of Fire: Racing Driver Wins Rally even though his Lamborghini was Burning up

Most people, even professional drivers, would probably pull aside on the road if their vehicle caught on fire, but not racing car driver Jason White and his navigator John White.

In the middle of the Targa High Country 2011 race, which took place at Mt Buller in Australia during the first weekend of November, the dynamic duo noticed that the rear-end of their brand-new $600,000 Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo Stradale was up in flames.

But instead of calling it a day, the Tasmanians decided to continue the race – and guess what; despite the fact that their Lambo was slowly roasting, they actually managed to win the race!

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