‘California mode’ is another of Fisker’s brainwaves. At the touch of a button, the car simultaneously opens its sunroof and fully lowers seven of the eight panes in the glasshouse (leaving only the windscreen in place), for the closest you can get to an open-air driving experience without actually removing the roof. Likewise on pricier trims, the car’s infotainment screen can rotate to a landscape orientation when parked, to allow you to stream your favourite TV shows while you wait for it to charge. (Fisker calls this ‘Hollywood mode.’) They’re novel features, both: a laugh, if a bit gimmicky.
But the substance hasn’t been neglected elsewhere. Fisker’s intention was to bring value to the family EV class with this car – and, whether you’re buying an Ocean at an entry- or mid-level price, it does just that.
A mid-level, twin-motor, Ultra-spec model is priced from just under £50,000 in the UK – in a segment where you’ll pay £51,000 for a 77kWh Hyundai Ioniq 5, £53,000 for a Tesla Model Y with 85kWh, £56,000 for an equivalent 65kWh BMW iX1, and £65,000 for a 91kWh Ford Mustang Mach-E AWD. And yet the Fisker gets 106kWh of usable battery capacity, and up to 440 miles of WLTP-certified electric range – figures that much more expensive EVs such as the Mercedes EQS only just about pip.
During our testing, it proved itself well capable of 375-400 miles of range on a warm day, in mixed urban, motorway and country road driving. It’d be farther still, needless to say, the more town driving you did. This is the kind of car that plenty of people with on-street parking or apartment lifestyles could charge once or twice a week, then, at their nearest fast charger (DC charging is possible at up to 200kW) or on a nearby on-street AC charging post, using it almost as if it were a combustion-engined equivalent.