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Volvo: Safety Beyond the Star Ratings
The latest EV startup, Fisker, begins production on their first vehicle, a stylish and swift crossover known as the Fisker Ocean.
The Affordable EV Arrives?
New EV makers are popping up left and right, and well-heeled OEMs are tossing billions into transitioning their lineups away from internal combustion and toward electrification. Interest in EVs is seeing a significant uptick among car buyers, with manufacturers unable to meet current levels of demand. And yet … the average price of a new EV recently topped $66,000, nearly $20,000 above the average for gas-powered new cars. While the cost evens out over time, given the cost savings of fuel versus electricity, those high initial prices are a major bar for entry for most car buyers.
Enter Fisker. The EV startup has set its sights on the middle of the car market with pricing more closely aligned to that of competing internal combustion cars (while other notable EV startups like Rivian and Lucid have catered to luxury car buyers). The company’s first vehicle, an all-electric SUV dubbed the Fisker Ocean, begins production today in Graz, Austria and starts at under $40,000 USD.
So, what is the Fisker Ocean? And might Fisker prove another significant player in the burgeoning EV space, or one of many what-ifs that struggled to scale? Below we’ll go in-depth into what Fisker has in store over the next year, including the new Fisker Ocean EV.
Fisker Ocean Starts Production
Fisker begins production on their first vehicle, the Ocean, today. Having debuted at last year’s LA Auto Show, Fisker pledged to have the Ocean in production by November of 2022, and despite the challenges posed by current global supply chains, they’ve done just that.
The Ocean is a moderately-sized all-electric crossover that will compete with the Ford Mustang Mach E and Tesla Model Y. Fisker says the Ocean will be offered in four trim levels: the Sport, Extreme, Ultra, and the limited-edition Ocean One.
The Ocean Sport will start at $37,499 and feature a single electric motor powering the front wheels. Range for the Sport is an estimated 250 miles and acceleration comes in at roughly seven seconds from zero to sixty mph.
The Extreme, Ultra, and One trims will come with two electric motors and all-wheel drive. Range for the One and Extreme is estimated at 350 miles on a single charge while the Ultra trim gets slightly less at 340 miles. The One and Extreme also share the Ocean’s quickest zero to sixty time of 3.6 seconds while the Ultra trim is just a tad slower at 3.9 seconds. (Note that anything below 5.5 seconds is a fairly fast car. Sub-four seconds is very quick indeed, while also par for the course for the latest crop of EVs.) The Extreme trim tops out at $68,999, which sets it more directly in competition with Tesla’s vehicles.
Reservations Are High for the Ocean
The mix of affordability and refinement has its fans as Fisker reports 62,000 reservations for the Ocean and the upcoming Fisker Pear (which we’ll get to in a moment). Fisker says they’ve already sold out of the limited 5,000 unit run of the Ocean One as well as the Sport and Ultra trims of the Ocean through the projected 2023 production. The company says they plan to produce approximately 42,000 units by the end of 2023, the bulk of which coming in Q3 and Q4. Naturally, there will be bumps along the way.
Indeed, one has already cropped up involving the Ocean’s Fisker Intelligent Pilot, the carmaker’s suite of advanced safety features. To avoid delaying production, some units will be shipped out without the requisite coding in place for certain driver assistance tech, including blind spot monitoring, lane-keep assist, and automatic high beams. Fisker says they are planning an over-the-air update in 2023 to enable these features. Deliveries on the Ocean should begin in the spring of next year.
Other Upcoming Fisker Models
Fisker has teased other upcoming models, too. The most enticing of which is the Fisker Pear, a “sporty” vehicle that in the few images the company has released looks to be a compact crossover of some sort. Significantly, Fisker says the Pear will start at a $29,990 MSRP. That would be less than half of the average new EV sale price we noted above. The Pear is slated for a 2023 reveal with production starting in Ohio in 2024.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Project Ronin, a four-door cabriolet with three electric motors and a purported/targeted range of 600 miles. Like the Pear, the Project Ronin is planned for a 2023 launch with production starting in 2024. Judging from the radical design, you can expect the Project Ronin to come in at significantly more than $30,000.
