2023 Fisker Ocean on 2040-cars

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The New Fisker website goes live, says Karma warranties limited to $2,000

If there's any question where Wanxiang hopes to take the remains of Fisker Automotive, just take a look at The New Fisker, a fresh official website for the bankrupt automaker. While the text available there hedges about just when and how the company will restart production, it is clear from the pictures that the company is ready to make the Atlantic PHEV concept a reality. The site even says, "Hello Future. Meet the Atlantic." But, for now, The New Fisker is more about the nitty-gritty details about how to convert the brand from a troubled mess into something people will want to spend money on again. Reassuringly, the site doesn't shy away from the automaker's disappointing past with this timeline, which includes the good and the bad from the past seven years. As for the future, Wanxiang is talking about restarting Karma production "as fast as possible," (maybe at Valmet, maybe Delaware, maybe somewhere else) as well as introducing new Fisker models, the Atlantic, Surf and Sunset concepts that we have seen before. The new Karma could be better than the old ones, since Wanxiang says it will use the long production break, "to improve on Karma and give the customers the outstanding experiences they deserve." The New Fisker says Karma warranties will only cover "a maximum of $2,000 per vehicle." If something goes wrong with an old Karma on the road (like, say, breaking down before you put 200 miles on it), will it be covered by warranty? Sort of. Wanxiang says it is bound by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware sale order to an Asset Purchase Agreement that limits the company to a total of $400,000 for warranty coverage, and a maximum of $2,000 per vehicle. The New Fisker apologies for the situation - "We understand if you are an owner and paid good money for your vehicle, $2,000 is not what you bargained for or expected. ... We are already hard at work discussing ways that we can make this a better experience for all current Fisker owners and hope to bring better news to each owner in the near future" - but that's all you can get today. We're reproduced The New Fisker's current FAQ below. Note that there is no mention of the Destino anywhere, despite the ties between Wanxiang and Bob Lutz's project. Are there any plans for new Fisker models? We are excited about the Karma and truly believe we can launch the Atlantic, Surf and Sunset in the future.

Fisker earnings call touts the Ocean's arrival, teases the Pear

Henrik Fisker's on his third go as head of an independent carmaker. It started with Fisker Coachbuild, putting new bodies on German sports cars to create the Tramonto and Latigo. His dreams soon went electric with Fisker Automotive and the Karma. The latest dream revision birthed Fiker Inc, the company behind the Ocean. Based on details provided during the company's Q4 and full-year 2022 results call with analysts, the third time could well and truly be the charm. The bullet points are a startup's dream. There are 56 Ocean prototypes on the roads, 15 of them in partner Magna Steyr's fleet for daily testing and validation. Fisker Inc spent less money than expected in 2022 ($702 million) and has more cash on hand than expected. And if things go smoothly in 2023, the predicted spend and gross margin could leave Fisker Inc with "potentially positive EBITDA [Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization] for 2023." Huge if it happens. If there's slightly mixed news, it's with the Q1 2023 timeline. The good bit is that Fisker says homologation programs in the U.S. and seven European countries are "progressing well," the processes expected to conclude in March. After that, the company needs to secure final regulatory approvals from the U.S. EPA, California's Air Resources Board, and the seven international regions. Fisker touted the broad market strategy as lowering risk since getting approved in multiple markets would give the company the option to go where demand is greatest. The target has been to get the first 300 Ocean units delivered by the end of March, Fisker saying the company secured supplier commitments for the quarterly and annual build schedules. With the amount of paperwork yet to be done, though, hitting the March deadline could be close. After that, according to the CEO, it's back to uncut good news. Those homologation programs have apparently shown ranges better than expected for the Ocean. Instead of the 350-mile range predicted on the U.S. regime, Fisker thinks "it's going to be closer to 360 [miles]." Instead of the Europe's WLTP prediction of 630 kilometers, he said, "I think this will be closer to 700."  As of the end of February, the company is sitting on roughly 65,000 reservations or orders for the Ocean. The goal is to manufacture 42,000 units this year, the ramp-up going from 300 in Q1 to 8,000 in Q2, more than 15,000 in Q3, and at least 19,000 in Q4.

Fisker Pear shows up in L.A. in video and pics

With the Fisker Ocean running down production lines at Magna's plant in Graz, Austria, Henrik Fisker has decided to let the Pear out the play. The Fisker Pear will be the second car introduced to the lineup, expected to happen sometime around late 2024. The CEO said he was going to take it out for a drive in L.A., and someone caught the hatchback crossing the new 6th Street Viaduct Bridge last Friday morning. This week, a prototype dressed in the same camouflage and bright green 22-inch Slipstream wheels was caught parked in an L.A. alley, giving us an even better look.  This one's dubbed a battery-electric city car for a global audience, its name an acronym for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution. Said to challenge cars like the Volkswagen ID.3 in international markets, the Pear is actually sized like a subcompact crossover. Length is given as 4.55 meters or 179.1 inches. That's 12 inches longer than the ID.3, 9.5 inches longer than the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, half an inch longer than the 2024 Chevy Trax. A series of patent application drawings at Fiskerati give glimpses into novel features, one of them being a drawer that emerges from the front fascia, the other being a hatch that partially disappears into the bumper. The steel chassis debuting with the Pear will eventually support two more vehicles. That platform can hold one of two batteries on offer, one for local city duty, and a Hyper Range pack with an estimated 310 miles of range. Fisker has announced a price of $29,900 for the base version with the smaller battery, but we imagine it's going to be hard to hold the line on that until the Pear goes on sale. The key to making it work is keeping the parts count low, and maximizing manufacturing efficiency. The automaker hired a production exec from BMW's South Carolina facility to oversee plans at the Foxconn facility where the Pear will be built, the target being 250,000 per year by 2025. Fisker wants the Pear to get Fisker Automotive to 1 million sales by 2027. Last we heard, Fisker said it had 5,000 reservations for the little guy. Now that it's out and about, we should see and learn more soon.