Heard of Fisker cars? Not many people have, but with an annual sales target of 100,000 vehicles, you probably will soon. It’s an independent American car maker – makes a nice change – which has only produced two models since its inception, the Karma and the latest addition, the Surf.

According to the Chief Executive Henrik Fisker, the most recent model offers the advantages of both a sports car and an estate car – making it a rather unique proposition. As well as being fitted with a two litre petrol engine, the car is also equipped with an electric engine that has a range of 80km.

The combined range of both engines is 480km, making it rather challenging to run out of juice. The car offers the ability to switch manually between petrol and electric engines – ideal for when entering or leaving inner city areas or roads with heavy traffic.

While the petrol engine is running, the electric battery is being charged up, so if the driver uses primarily the petrol engine, he or she may hardly ever need to charge up the battery manually. If an owner of a Fisker ever has to call up their annual breakdown cover provider, it is unlikely to be because the vehicle has run out of petrol or electricity.

It will be interesting to see if the odd combination of family car and sports car takes off in the US and Europe. In our increasingly green minded automotive landscape, cars like those from Fisker may prove to be the way forward.

The factory that makes the Fisker is based in Delaware, USA and has capacity to produce 250,000 vehicles a year.