Electric vehicle entrepreneur Henrik Fisker has unveiled its first mass-market EV, an SUV it calls the Fisker Ocean, ahead of the 2020 Consumer Electronics show (CES). Starting at $37,500, Fisker says the electric SUV will get between 250 and 300 miles per charge and will include solar panels on its roof. Fisker and his unnamed company, Fisker Inc., plan to launch the Ocean vehicle in late 2021 or early 2022.
Fisker started Fisker Inc. in 2016, three years later due to the failure of his first company, Fisker Automotive’s hybrid sports car known as the Karma. Karma was revived by a Chinese company after Fisker Automotive’s bankruptcy auction; this company is now called Karma Automotive, the car is called Revero.
Iconic vehicles like the Aston Martin DB9 and BMW Z8 and designed for a short time at Tesla, Fisker originally intended to start his new company with an all-electric sports car known as the EMotion. It was unveiled at CES in 2018, but Fisker announced it was suspending the project in March 2019 in favor of Ocean.
Fisker Inc. has since spent a lot of time revealing more about its electric SUV, announcing in November that Ocean plans to lease its EVs, starting at $379 per month and without a long-term contract, or Volkswagen’s Electrify America charging EVs. can use the network.
But Fisker showed off the Ocean prototype at an event in Los Angeles, California on Sunday, and the company will showcase it at CES, where it plans to share more about the EV.
“The World’s Most Sustainable Vehicle,” Fisker says.
Save money with a solar roof, Ocean doesn’t seem to be breaking any SUV contracts. Fisker has just released a new render of the prototype on public roads, but from this limited perspective, it seems to have similarities to Volvo’s XC40 in profile and Land Rover’s SUVs in the nose, albeit in a Hyundai-level package.
One of the specs Fisker teased on Sunday is that there will be a performer version of the Ocean that can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.9 seconds. He also said there will be multiple powertrain configurations, presumably the base version of the Ocean will come with an electric motor. The company said on Sunday that the base version will also be powered by a battery pack of around 80kWh.
Fisker Inc. It also says it plans to develop two more models that will use Ocean’s technological platform. The startup also offered features like a karaoke mode (which Tesla added to its cars last year) and a “California mode” where all windows will roll at the touch of a button.
What materials does the vehicle consist of?
The ugliest claim Fisker Inc. has made about the Ocean is that it will be “the world’s most sustainable vehicle.” It supports this in several ways, some of which are dubious at best. The solar roof is one, and it’s an idea Fisker first worked with on the original Karma hybrid car, but it’s only likely to add a few miles of range per day. Another is Ocean’s use of “fully recycled carpet” made from abandoned fishing net waste “pulled from the oceans and aquaculture.”
While Fisker doesn’t make any notes on how to avoid the environmental hazards of Rayon manufacturing, the interior will be 100 percent vegan, featuring “100 percent polycarbonate polyurethane surfaces and 100 percent reinforced Rayon backing,” according to the company.
Fisker Inc. says some interior materials will also use polyester fibers and recycled plastic bottles and reused rubber waste.
Possibility of being caught: Will it sell?
Fisker has always been a man known for ambitious vision – his company is also trying to launch a solid-state battery – but he’s also having a hard time executing it. Even if Fisker Ocean enters the market in its targeted timeframe, it will enter an increasingly crowded market, not far more populated than Tesla’s electric vehicles. As Tesla has proven, bringing a new car to market takes billions of dollars and lots of luck.
