He's got a fabulous track record himself, and has assembled what he calls the dream team of designers, engineers and executives who have been responsible for producing winners such as the Rolls-Royce Phantom, Ford GT and BMW 5-Series. So maybe he has the right to be so sure.

But even he would have to admit that it's been quite a wild ride to end up where he is today, standing on the verge of launching his global empire, just 37 months after first showing the concept Karma to the world at the 2008 NAIAS in Detroit. In those three years since he wowed the world with his new car, Henrik and his partner, Barny Koehler, raised a billion dollars, set up a global dealer network and got 3,000 people to put down deposits for a car that had never moved a wheel under its own power. All this, despite the implosion of the global car industry.

One entirely forgivable reason for people giving them their cash was the way the car looked. Drawing on all his years of designing and overseeing gorgeous cars for other companies, Henrik created a fabulously desirable four-door saloon that had its own unique personality. The second reason was that this hugely indulgent-looking car was a hybrid. So some could justify it on rational rather than emotional grounds. And the final, shocking must-have-one-now for buyers was that it was going to cost under $90k.

It didn't all go to plan over the following three years, the production date slipping from 2009 to 2010 to the current March 2011. The price has inflated from $80k to a starting bid of $95,900 (£63,500). And the car has put on some weight, rising from the originally predicted 2,086kg to an expected figure somewhere around the 2,495kg mark. But that's about it. Everything else remains pretty much as promised, which is nothing short of remarkable, not just for a start-up car company, but any car company.

So, in something of a first, instead of a badly watered-down version of the dramatic concept car, the production Karma looks as radically sexy and desirable on its standard 22-inch Circuit Blade wheels as the one that we first saw in the Cobo Hall back in 2008. ....read more