Time marches on unless it’s the 2012 Fisker Karma we’re talking about.

Wanxiang Group, the Chinese company that bought the pieces left by Fisker Automotive to build the Karma plug-in luxury sedan, expects to relaunch the car next year and keep the design basically the same, according to sources close to Reuters.

Those sources say Wanxiang’s Karma will have to look pretty much similar to avoid being subjected to new safety and other legislative tests in order to go on sale, as well as some of the parts that were still in inventory when Fisker went down. Earlier plans indicated Wanxiang was going to make substantial changes to the Fisker design, but now that may just be limited to fixing the problems encountered on the early cars.

Wanxiang also faces new problems with Fisker’s old spurned suppliers, still angry over the losses and production problems they faced before.

Again, we’ll see what twists the Karma’s road takes us on next.

By Zac Estrada