2023 Fisker Ocean on 2040-cars

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Fisker Ocean enters production this week without some ADAS features

At the beginning of the year, Henrik Fisker said his eponymous company anticipated the Ocean battery-electric crossover entering production in November, first deliveries happening in early 2023. In the latest update during the Q3 earnings call with analysts, Fisker said everything is on track, the Ocean expected to start rolling down the production line at Magna Steyr's facility in Graz, Austria on November 17. If that happens, then dealers would be handing over the first sets of keys to retail customers next February. Hitting the milestones might be a bigger pick-me-up for Fisker than the customers, showing the longtime design executive may finally have the right team in place to become a successful auto executive. There will be some hiccups, however. Automotive News reports the first Oceans will be delivered without some software features because Fisker doesn't want to delay production while the coding is sorted. Most of the omissions are from Fisker Intelligent Pilot, the advanced driver assistance suite. Affected units will not have automatic high beams, blind-spot monitoring, and lane-keep assistance, which the company hopes to add with an over-the-air update early next year. Based on the production timeline, that could mean only the Fisker Ocean One, limited to 5,000 units and built into Q2 of next year, will be affected. Lane centering and traffic-jam assist are anticipated to come at the end of 2023. Cruise control is another casualty, unavailable until later next year. Fisker told Autonews he believes "There's also, quite frankly, a lot of customers that may not care about it, so why wait to launch the vehicle? And you know you're going to maybe get it three months, six months, nine months later." Based on the analyst call, Fisker Automotive is prepping for the trials of homologation in Europe and the U.S., and wants to do as much as possible at once instead of doing piecemeal software certifications. Delivering vehicles without certain software-enabled features that will be added later shouldn't surprise anyone. Volkswagen did the same with the ID.3 launch. Meanwhile, the chip shortage convinced legacy OEMs to sell cars without features that couldn't be added later.   Fisker's production ramp-up for 2023 intends for Magna to build more than 300 units in Q1, more than 8,000 units in Q2, more than 15,000 units in Q3, and at least 19,100 units in Q4, making a total of 42,400 Oceans. As mentioned, the first 5,000 will be the Ocean One.

Fisker Ocean Extreme gets EPA-rated 360 miles on a charge

Two months ago, Fisker Inc. expected the U.S. EPA to declare that its dual-motor Ocean Extreme SUV possessed an estimated range rating of 350 miles. The verdict is in, with the government agency going even better by certifying the Ocean Extreme on the standard 20-inch wheels as able to go an estimated 360 miles on a charge. This version of the Ocean fits a 113-kWh battery and a dual-motor drivetrain making 550 horsepower. Fisker's press release touting the EPA result noted the Ocean "has the longest range of any new electric SUV under $200,000 sold in the United States today." That clunky specific is because Faraday Future attests that it's FF 91 SUV will go 381 miles on a charge with its 142-kWh battery.  After testing in Europe earlier this year, the Ocean Extreme on 20-inch wheels earned a range rating of 440 miles on the WLTP cycle. When tested on the optional 22-inch wheels, range only dropped to 436 miles. One hopes the same tiny difference will hold here. The automaker says it has received all of the necessary paperwork from the EPA, the California Air Resources Board (CARB), and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to allow it to sell cars in every state and Washington, D.C. Each sale will also earn Fisker four Zero Emission Vehicle credits from CARB. The CEO said, "We plan to send out communications today to our first customers." With deliveries here commencing on schedule, all 5,000 examples of the Ocean One Launch Edition should meet their new owners by the end of September, around the same time the top-trim Ocean Extreme — the serial production version of the Ocean One Launch Edition without all the standard goodies — begins deliveries. Fisker expects to produce between 32,000 and 36,000 units in 2023, compared with its previous target of 42,400 cars. Some of those could be the Force E off-roading version that fits a stouter roof rack, new front and rear bumpers, tow hooks at both ends, and 33-inch tires on 20-inch wheels, plus optional grab handles, tiedowns, and rubber floors. If that happens, Henrik Fisker said the package can be retrofitted to the top two trims, the Ocean Extreme and Ocean Ultra.   

Fisker will borrow $5M from Wanxiang as interim solution

It may seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the approximately $1 billion in liabilities bankrupt automaker Fisker Automotive has against it, but every bit helps. In this case, it's a smidgeon less than $5 billion. That's how much the maker of the Karma extended-range plug-in is getting approved to borrow from its presumed future owner, Wanxiang Group. It's a start. A US bankruptcy court judge said Wanxiang could loan Fisker $4.98 million for interim financing purposes while the China-based company waits to get antitrust clearance from the US government to buy the now-dormant California-based company, Bloomberg News says. Fisker is seeking another $10.5 million in loans via a debtor-in-possession loan. After that, things get real interesting as everyone from the state of Delaware to General Motors to Finland's Valmet Automotive and more than 600 other entities have gotten in line to collect on what's alleged as $985.4 million in debt. Last month, Wanxiang won a bid against Hong Kong-based Hybrid Tech Holdings for Fisker, which hasn't made any Karmas since mid-2012. Wanxiang will pay $149.2 million, including $126.2 million in cash and $8 million in assumed liabilities, for Fisker. The automaker filed for bankruptcy last November and Wanxiang bounced the company back as the The New Fisker this week.