Nobody likes to always be the butt of jokes, but sometimes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) just makes itself too easy a target. The latest? The agency, which determines size classifications for cars in order to apply CO2 reduction goals (that would be fuel economy standards to those of us not in the EPA), has determined that the 2012 Fisker Karma (above) range-extended plug-in hybrid, despite a length of 16.5-feet, width that exceeds 6 feet and sumo-like weight exceeding 2.5 tons, is -- wait for it -- a subcompact.
The rationale? Despite its outside dimensions and powerful 403-horsepower electric powerplant, the $96,000 Fisker -- an exotic luxury sedan with four seats in the tradition of most four-place exotic sports sedans (it helps to be a compact person if you want to get into one of those back seats) -- doesn’t measure up in total interior space. Seems the EPA determines size categories based on interior volume, not overall measurements, and the Fisker comes in at under the cutoff of 100 cubic-feet that divides subcompacts from compacts.
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