Karma Revero Recalled By The NHTSA Over Faulty Side Airbags

We don’t hear much about the Karma these days. Not from Fisker, certainly, and not much from Karma Automotive, either. But we have just received word from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The government agency has announced the recall of nearly a hundred of the luxury plug-in hybrids, now known as the Karma Revero, due to an issue with its airbags.

More specifically, the side curtain airbags could detach from their inflators. That could prevent them from deploying properly in the event of a crash, thereby failing to comply with the “ejection mitigation” section of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.

The problematic units, unsurprisingly, come from Takata. However, the issue ostensibly has nothing to do with the unexpectedly detonating inflators that have triggered the largest automotive recall in history and driven Takata into bankruptcy.

To fix this issue, Karma Automotive is asking 94 owners to bring their Reveros in to their local dealers to have new units installed with an additional clamp in place to secure the inflator. The process is set to kick off on April 17.

China’s Wanxiang Group launched Karma Automotive and the reborn Karma Revero after acquiring the assets of the defunct Fisker Automotive for nearly $150 million in 2014. The vehicle was initially launched in 2011 as the Fisker Karma and was developed by noted designer Henrik Fisker.

It packs a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine and a pair of electric motors to deliver a combined 403 horsepower, netting a 0-60 mph time of 5.4 seconds and a 240-mile total driving range certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency.