Henrik Fisker, the designer behind cars like the BMW Z8 and the Fisker Karma, has struggled to keep a car company afloat in the past. But he’s trying again with the Fisker Ocean, a 250-mile range electric crossover with a price that steeply undercuts the upcoming Tesla Model Y.
To be clear, this is now Fisker Inc., not the old Fisker Automotive that launched the Fisker Karma—that car became the Karma Revero and the company now operates without its old namesake star designer. Instead, he’s doing Fisker Inc., which has previously shown an electric sedan concept, but is really pushing its new Ocean crossover.
Fisker unveiled the Ocean to a crowd of journalists at CES over the weekend, claiming the electric crossover was capable of between 250 and 300 miles of range from a battery pack the company claims is around 80 kWh. The big shock was the starting price though, at $37,499 before any tax incentives are applied.
For charging, Fisker Inc. has already announced a deal with Electrify America, one of the fastest growing charging networks in the U.S. You can watch the full reveal stream on the company’s website.
At first, the starting price is not too far off from the upcoming base Tesla Model Y—also a compact electric crossover—which starts at $39,000 before incentives with a range of 230 miles. But when you remember that Tesla has nearly used up all of its federal tax credit, the Ocean’s price will come down by $7,500 or more with tax credits applied, where the Model Y won’t have that benefit.
That makes the difference now about $30,000 even for the base Ocean compared to $39,000 for the Model Y, factoring in available incentives.
If you’d rather lease, Fisker is offering a seemingly impossible lease deal, claiming there will be no long-term contracts, priced at $379 a month with $2,999 due at signing following a $250 reservation fee if you apply for one now. That reservation fee applies to vehicle purchases, too.
The interesting catch of the deal, though, is that lessees can return the car after just a month, or after several years, or anywhere in between, as long as they’re paying the monthly rate. You get up to 30,000 miles in a year, too.
The interior is allegedly 100 percent vegan, the car features a “California mode” that lowers every window at the touch of a button. At the CES reveal, Fisker also showed off a karaoke mode similar to what Tesla upgraded its infotainment software with recently.
Fisker claims early deliveries will begin in late 2021 with a full production ramp up in 2022, starting in the U.S. It’s unclear how or where Fisker will manufacture the Ocean, but the company is claiming to have global production capability as sales increase. The ultimate goal is one million vehicles sold by 2027 which, yeah, sure. Not even Tesla has pulled that off.
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