The Fisker Ocean will make its global public debut at CES 2020.
If you don’t know what the Fisker Ocean is, you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking it might be another luxury yacht designed by Henrik Fisker. But it’s not. Rather, it’s the new electric SUV that the famed auto designer has been teasing for a year, and it will finally debut at the Consumer Electronics Show 2020 in Las Vegas in Januar.
Fisker has been struggling to find re-establish himself as an electric vehicle manufacturer in the aftermath of his original electric vehicle start-up’s bankruptcy in 2013. The assets of his namesake company were purchased by China's Wanxiang and re-invented as Karma Automotive and the now fully-electric Revero.
Rather than admit defeat, Fisker set up a new shop bearing his name in 2016 with plans to build a luxury electric sedan to rival the Tesla Model S, but ran into trouble developing new solid-state battery technology. As a result, Fisker shelved plans for the Emotion, and instead refocused efforts on designing an affordable electric SUV.
The recently revealed Fisker Ocean is likely a reference to the avant-garde plugin hybrid Surf wagon that never make it to production. The upcoming fully-electric SUV will feature a “California” mode that promises an open-air experience. How that will mesh with its solar roof isn’t clear, but the company will release a video demonstrating the feature in its Fisker Flexee mobile app next week.
Fisker also announced that the Ocean will be part of the Electrify America charging network. The Ocean’s 80 kWh battery pack can achieve more than 200 miles of range from 30 minutes of charging (from 15% capacity to 80% capacity). With a fully charged battery, the Ocean has an estimated 300-mile driving range. Electrify America’s 350 kW chargers can charge capable vehicles up to 20 miles per minute.
Although Fisker says the Ocean is production-ready, the company does not have a manufacturing facility. However, production isn’t targeted to begin until the end of 2021 with the first high-volume deliveries projected for 2022, so there is time for the company to pull off what at this point seems like an impossible goal.
