2023 Fisker Ocean on 2040-cars

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2015 Fisker-Galpin Rocket Quick Spin [w/video]

There is no shortage of fast Mustangs these days. Roush and Saleen will tune your ordinary 'Stang into something really special. Ford itself offers hot coupes like the new Shelby GT350. Don't even get me started on the endless aftermarket catalogs full of bolt-on whats-its and performance upgrades. Standing out within the huge crowd of tuned Mustangs is hard to do. But you'll definitely notice this one. "I always wanted to do a Mustang," Henrik Fisker told me as we walked toward his latest creation, the Rocket, parked outside the Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, CA. The man knows a thing or two about design, after all. He penned the BMW Z8, as well as the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage. But this Rocket is, well, ugly. The rear end isn't totally terrible, and those 21-inch wheels are sort of cool, but taken as a whole, it looks like it swallowed something it doesn't like the taste of. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder – or perhaps, the creator – so we'll let Mr. Fisker explain why the car looks the way it does. See the video below for his brief design walkaround. If you can get past the looks, there's a world of performance to unleash, thanks to the boys at Galpin Auto Sports – the same folks responsible for the GTR1 I drove last year. The Mustang's 5.0-liter V8 gets a 2.9-liter Whipple supercharger that improves output to 725 horsepower (the torque figure isn't available), and the car's suspension has been thoroughly reworked to help put all that grunt to the ground. It's very good, yet very familiar. Let me explain. Driving Notes Like the stock Mustang, it's really easy to drive. The car fires up with a growl, you move the shifter into first gear, and the action of engagement is as solid as it is in the normal 5.0-liter car. Both the clutch and throttle have a progressive action, so it's super easy to launch the Rocket (sorry). Once you get going, there's a ton of power to unleash. It doesn't smack you in the face right up front, though – the power delivery is smooth and linear. Easy to manage, too, thanks to that slick six-speed manual transmission. Credit Ford (and Getrag) for making a manual that's able to handle so much extra grunt. That said, the Rocket feels like your typical fast Mustang. It goes like hell in a straight line and there isn't a ton of steering feel. Galpin retuned the electronic power-assisted steering, but it's still too light considering the added power of the car.

Fisker teases electric crossover again and a high-vis turn signal

Elon Musk turns to Twitter when it's time to spread the Tesla news. Henrik Fisker perfers Facebook. The Danish-American designer took to FB once more to tease his coming electric crossover, this time showing a slice of the rear three-quarter. The feature he wants to highlight is the turn signal set into the D-pillar, which "will provide extra safety when you change lanes." There are a fair few other details to glean as well. Starting from the top, a sunroof opening appears mounted quite a bit rearward. The aperture appears small in view of Fisker promising us that pressing a button will open the roof to create "an extended open-air atmosphere;" so we expect there's another opening over the front seats. The belt line catches the eye; we'll see what it does for rear three-quarter visibility from the driver's seat. The pop-out door handles look to be illuminated by thin LED strips, and more such strips look to define the CHMSL on the tailgate spoiler and taillights. And note the curve of that seriously punched-out rear fender, designed to fit the optional 22-inch wheel. Fisker says the full-on reveal comes this December. From that point, it'll be around an 18-month wait for the production version, planned for the latter half of 2021. Many headlining features have been promised, from the "vastly spacious" and "innovative interior with new utility features," the "captivating design touches that have been traditionally reserved for supercars," and an as-yet-unidentified "new radical feature." Beyond the teasers, what we're expecting is a 300-mile range from a lithium-ion battery pack of at least 80 kWh, a single electric motor standard, two when optioned with all-wheel drive, and a price of under $40,000 to start. The electric mover will be one of three affordable EVs coming from Fisker gathered under the $129,000 EMotion flagship electric sedan. Expect more teasers before December.

Henrik Fisker: No 'final conclusion' yet in Foxconn deal

Two years ago, EV startup Fisker seemed to have hooked a giant when it announced a deal with Taiwanese iPhone maker Foxconn to build a sub-$30,000 crossover in the United States. It turns out that deal hasn't been finalized, according to comments Fisker founder and CEO Henrik Fisker made during an interview with TechCrunch. "In the Foxconn deal specifically, we don't yet have a final conclusion to this deal," Fisker told TechCrunch on the sidelines of an event in Huntington Beach, California, to showcase its future EV portfolio. While Henrik Fisker is still confident it will come together, his comments show just how precarious and complex automotive manufacturing deals can be. And considering Foxconn's history of backing out of other factory agreements, there's reason for some caution. The Foxconn-Fisker deal Foxconn and Fisker signed in February 2021 a memorandum of understanding agreement, with the goal of producing 250,000 vehicles annually. While it wasn't clear which vehicle Fisker might build with Foxconn, the automaker had said that it was working on the Personal Automotive Electric Revolution (PEAR) — an EV built for cities and urban environments that would cost less than $30,000. The Fisker-Foxconn deal came together relatively quickly following the announcement of the memorandum, and by May 2021, Foxconn and Fisker had a signed agreement, setting those expectations in writing. A few months later, Foxconn made a separate deal with EV maker Lordstown Motors that included buying its factory in Ohio and helping the struggling company manufacture its Endurance electric pickup truck. Fisker became a beneficiary of the deal when, in May 2022, the company announced it reached an agreement with Foxconn to build its PEAR EV at the Lordstown factory. But cracks soon formed in Foxconn's agreement with Lordstown Motors. Lordstown Motors filed for bankruptcy and has sued Foxconn for "fraudulent conduct," stating that the Taiwanese company had made a litany of "broken promises." Foxconn currently still owns the manufacturing plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and Fisker says that plans to build the PEAR in the Lordstown plant are still on track. Foxconn is no stranger to scuttling done deals. The company withdrew from a $19.5 billion agreement with Indian company Vedanta last month. It also famously received a $3 billion incentives package to build a factory in Wisconsin that was supposed to create 13,000 jobs.