New 2012 Fisker Karma

When U.S. automakers reported sales for November, one name was missing from the roster: Fisker, the California start-up selling the $96,000 Karma plug-in hybridsedan. That's because despite what's been said elsewhere,Fisker hadn't officially completed a sale to a customer yet.

The launch of the Fisker Karma has been delayed repeatedly, blowing several deadlines set by the automaker which is backed by a $529 million federal loan. Earlier this year,Fisker announced a couple dozen buyers were getting their Karmas, but it later turned out those cars still technically belonged to Fisker, since the Karma hadn't been certified by the Environmental Protection Agency or California emissions officials.

Both those certifications came in October, and Fisker has said it was delivering keys to customers soon. Then just before Thanksgiving, Fisker's battery supplier laid off 125 workers in Michigan, citing a deep cut in orders from Fisker for the next few quarters.

A Fisker spokesman told Motoramic last week that while the company had shipped Karmas to dealers, it had not yet completed a sale to a customer, but expected to do so this month. We asked for clarification on what exactly kept sales from going through, but haven't heard back. Two months ago, Fisker was vowing to deliver Karmas by the end of the year to the 3,000 people who had put down deposits. Many of those would-be customers might have to make other plans for the holidays.