Fisker Aucustomisings an American company known for producing one of the world’s first luxury plug-in hybrid electric cars – the Fisker Karma. However, production of the Fisker Karma was suspended in the year 2012 due to the company’s battery supplier A123 Systems going bankrupt.
Co-founded in 2007 by Henrik Fisker with Bernhard Koehler and Quantum technologies, the company secured a 5.2 million dollar seed fund from its very first set of investors. Henrik Fisker has had some trendy cars like the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage, Artega GT, and the BMW Z8 in his design portfolio and also holds the experience of having directed Aston Martin design. He was also one of the board members of the British Sportscar manufacturer.
Between having co-founded Fisker Automotive and leaving Aston Martin, Henrik and Koehler revisited the craft of customising automobiles under the name of Fisker Coachbuild. Their cars were built on powertrains and chassis borrowed from the likes of Mercedes Benz SL and BMW’s six series. Though they sold several cars, the company eventually laid the groundwork for Fisker Automotive.
Trouble began with successive recalls of their car batteries by vendor company A123. The battery vendor eventually went bankrupt while struggling with the financial blowback of rectifying issues of multiple unhappy customers. This led Fisker Automotive to pause production for almost half a year, with no solid timeline for its resumption.
In 2014, Fisker Automotive’s assets were purchased by a Chinese auto part company – the Wanxiang Group. In 2016 Henrik Fisker launched a separate company – Fisker Inc. with the original trademarks and brand identity which he had retained post the sale of Fisker Automotive. As part of the sale agreement between Fisker and Wanxiang, the latter was compelled to rename its acquired company to Karma Automotive.
Based in Southern California, Fisker Inc. is developing the EMotion, an all-electric sedan that will have a 400-mile electric range; and a mass-market electric vehicle SUV called the Ocean. In addition to these cars, an autonomous, all-electric shuttle called the Orbit is also among Fisker’s developmental projects. The company has officially been identified as the relaunch of the Fisker brand previously known as Fisker Automotive – the birthplace of the Fisker Karma.
Besides designing and developing electric vehicles, Fisker Inc. has numerous patents to its name. Some of these include research and development of solid-state battery technology for use in automotive, consumer electronics, and other industries.
The company has recently teased their upcoming electric SUV and have prepared an official launch event for the fourth of January 2020. Called the Ocean, it is claimed to be the world’s most sustainable vehicle and designed to run on recycled, vegan and natural products.
Posed as a challenger to the Tesla Model Y, the Ocean SUV borrows design cues from the Fisker Emotion concept vehicle introduced the previous year. It features a radar in place of the grill, large air intake and flared wheel arches. Besides, its futuristic design cues like the narrow headlights and chrome accents help create a bridge between visual performance potential and modern, practical design. In Fisker’s own words, the Ocean e-SUV is designed with the image of a supercar in mind and both its aesthetics and mechanical composition work together to achieve the said image.
The roof section is removable and comes with an inbuilt solar panel that helps aid the car’s eighty kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery set. Fisker is said to have quoted that the access to open-air is just a button touch away and will in no way compromise the safety and shell integrity of the SUV.
The car’s battery can be expected to dish out a range of more than four hundred and fifty kilometres. The SUV will have an electric motor for each wheel, making it optimised and calibrated for all-wheel drive.
The interiors are designed to offer best in class passenger space and comfort. Tech hardware includes a large head’s up display and an intelligent UI. The company’s solid-state battery technology is being developed to enable future electric vehicles to travel more than eight hundred kilometres on a fast charge that will take as little as a minute.
Final spec sheet and performance numbers of the car will be released to the public at its official launch. Advanced bookings are scheduled for the end of November this year, and it won’t be until 2021 that the car sees a full-scale assembly line. Production location is still being pondered upon, but Henrik Fisker assures that January 2020 will see the first fully functional prototype.
The production model will be made available to the public through an international flexible lease arrangement. There will be no compulsion for buyers to enter a long term contract. Henrik Fisker also shares that potential buyers will be able to go through the entire process by downloading and using a smartphone app which will also serve the purpose of service and maintenance schedule.
