After years of releasing concept vehicles and renders, Fisker has hit a major milestone and officially started production of its first electric vehicle (EV), the Fisker Ocean.
The electric SUV is being built by Canada’s Magna Steyr at their facility in Graz, Austria, where CEO Henrik Fisker was in attendance to drive one of the first Ocean SUVs off the production line this morning.
“It’s an emotional day as we start production of the world’s most sustainable vehicle in record time – on time – in the carbon-neutral factory in Graz. We’ve challenged the old model of longer development timelines, reflecting our team’s agility and dedication to creating emotionally desirable vehicles with the newest, most unique experiences in our price range. We have the highest quality at launch, aligned with our commitment to leading the industry in sustainability. More than 63,000 customers worldwide share our enthusiasm. It’s a day for our team and fans to celebrate!” Fisker Chairman and CEO Henrik Fisker said.
Production will ramp quickly according to Fisker, who says Magna will be able to build over 300 units in Q1 2023, increasing to 8,000 in Q2 and more than 15,000 units in both Q3 and Q4.
If all goes well Fisker says they will produce 42,400 units by the end of next year.
https://twitter.com/FiskerInc/status/1593248844493385729
The Ocean is billed as the world’s most sustainable EV with parts made from recycled and vegan materials. That has appealed to more than 63,000 customers who have placed a reservation for the Ocean since it was announced in 2019.
The Ocean’s low price of $37,499 probably also helped attract many of those customers, although the first Ocean’s off the production line will be the limited edition Fisker Ocean ONE which starts at nearly twice that amount – $68,999.
Even though Fisker has started production of the Ocean, it will be coming without many key software and safety features like blind spot monitoring, lane keep assistance, automatic high beams, and more.
All of the missing features are expected to be added through over-the-air (OTA) software updates by next year, with the exception being the vehicle-to-home and vehicle-to-load features, which have a more vague timeline.
