DETROIT (AP) — Fisker Automotive and Visionary Vehicles are two companies planning to bring luxurious plug-in sedans to market, proving that green doesn't have to come in an economical package.

"If I say 'electric,' people think 'slow'. They think electric cars are golf carts," Malcolm Bricklin, chairman and chief executive of Visionary Vehicles Inc., said Tuesday at the North American International Auto Show. "What people don't get is they're very fast, and they're real."

Take the Fisker Karma. The sports car, unveiled this week at the show, can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds and can reach a top speed of 125 mph. But it can also travel 50 miles on pure electric power — using a lithium-ion battery and an electric motor — before using its small, four-cylinder gas engine. The $80,000 Karma is expected to go into production at the end of 2009.

Outside, the Karma is reminiscent of a Maserati or a Corvette. The austere interior, with rich brown and tan leathers and buttons that are flush with the dashboard, was inspired by a Manhattan penthouse, said Henrik Fisker, the founder and chief executive of Lake Forest, California-based Fisker Automotive Inc. and a former designer with BMW AG and Aston Martin.

Fisker said he wanted to erase the image of green vehicles as awkward and small.

"I wanted to make a real statement of how sexy a green car can be," he said. Otherwise, he said, green cars will never achieve the mass appeal they need to in order to make an environmental difference.

Fisker projects world-wide sales of 15,000 vehicles a year for the Karma. The company is talking to several companies about a partnership to distribute the vehicle and should have more details this spring, Fisker said.

Fisker is one of several start-ups developing green luxury cars. Tesla Motors has pre-sold all of its 2008 Tesla Roadsters, a fully electric sports car that sells for $98,000. The company expects to begin deliveries in the first quarter of this year.

Aaron Bragman, an auto industry analyst for the consulting firm Global Insight, said there is definitely a market for expensive, environmentally friendly vehicles, but it will be difficult for small manufacturers to do what companies like General Motors Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. have not been able to achieve because of cost and technological difficulties. GM says it hopes its Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle will be on the market by 2010, but that's not guaranteed, and Toyota is only testing a fleet of plug-in hybrids at this stage.

Visionary Vehicles is working on a less expensive but still plush plug-in sedan that Bricklin hopes to have on US roads by 2010. His proposed EVX/LS would be the size of Mercedes' flagship S-Class sedan but would also be able to travel 40 to 50 miles on pure electricity. It would sell for $35,000.

New York-based Visionary Vehicles signed a deal with Ontario-based Electrovaya last week to supply lithium-ion batteries to its cars, and Bricklin said he hopes to announce a US location for manufacturing in the next few months. He's also lining up dealers who could sell his cars as well as other vehicles from start-ups that want to use his battery technology.

Bricklin, who originally planned to sell Chinese vehicles in the United States starting in 2007 but backed out of that deal, said he was won over by the potential of plug-in hybrids.

"When I say I'm building a car that's the size of a Mercedes S, will get 100 miles to the gallon, has unlimited range and sells for under $40,000 ... to a man it's, 'Put me on the list. I want to buy it'," he said.

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On the Net:

Fisker Automotive: http://www.fiskerautomotive.com

Visionary Vehicles: http://www.vvcars.com