Electric vehicle (EV) company Fisker (FSR) unveiled its Ocean EV SUV in late November at the Los Angeles Auto Show with the goal of making the car “the world’s most sustainable vehicle.” The base model, named the Ocean Sport, will start at $37,499 before any government incentives.
CEO and chairman Henrik Fisker said that customers may be able to get their hands on the Ocean later this year.
“We have seen [that] the first parts coming in [for the Ocean] are very high quality for this early in the process,” Fisker told Yahoo Finance Live. “But we are on schedule to start deliveries in November this year. And of course, we are tackling like everybody else, a chip crisis and supply chain [crunch], but so far, we have been able to mitigate through that and we are on target.”
Fisker joined Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the company’s earnings, the timeline for Ocean electric SUV deliveries, competition in the EV space, and growth. According to him, the first completed prototypes are expected to roll off Fisker’s manufacturing line next week.
The Ocean Sport will feature a single electric motor producing 275 horsepower through a front-wheel drive system, with a range of around 250 miles. Sportier trims of the Ocean—the Ocean Ultra (est. $51,500 MSRP), Ocean Extreme (est. $70,500 MSRP), and limited edition Ocean One (est. $70,500 MSRP)—will have an electric motor on each axle, allowing for all-wheel drive and a power output of 550 horsepower. The estimated range for dual-motor models is expected to be able to exceed 350 miles.
Fisker has secured production partnerships with Austrian auto manufacturer Magna Steyr — a subsidiary of Magna International (MGA) — and Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer Foxconn for its new product lines. The CEO is confident that these partnerships will enable the company to reach its goal of achieving a manufacturing output of over a million vehicles per year before 2030.
Preliminary reservations numbers
Fisker announced that reservations for the Ocean have topped 30,000. The automaker also recently began accepting reservations for the 2024 Fisker PEAR, which already has over 1,000 reservations. The PEAR, an electric crossover, is targeted to cost just under $30,000 before taxes and incentives.
“I think what’s happened is that we have now reached sort of a little bit of a saturation in the luxury EV market,” Fisker said. “And very few companies have concentrated on affordability. And that’s really why we went in that market because we see the opportunity to grab a big market share there.”
He also noted that Fisker is engaged in early talks with “several global rental car companies” regarding large fleet orders for Ocean SUVs.
Thomas Hum is a writer at Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter @thomashumTV
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