The highlight of attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed last week weren’t any of the cars, but my talk with Henrik Fisker who walked me around the Ocean electric SUV and also shared information on two upcoming models: the affordable Pear and the sporty Ronin four-door convertible.
Our main conversation topic was the Ocean, which is set to enter production in November of this year. It will be manufactured by Magna-Steyr in Austria, and given this manufacturer’s track record (it builds the I-Pace for Jaguar, for instance), the level of quality should be good - I was not able to examine the prototype on display since they said they did not open it at Goodwood.
Another point Henrik Fisker was keen to make about the Ocean was that it will contain what he believes is the largest quantity of recycled materials - 110 pounds or 50 kg, which he says is more than any other vehicle currently on the market. The interior contains recycled materials including fishing nets and plastic bottles.
One reveal made during my talk with Henrik Fisker was that the Pear entry-level model was going to be an in-between model - neither hatchback, nor crossover. We also discovered that the Pear will not have a traditional hatchback opening mechanism to access the rear cargo area - we were not told directly how it works, but it’s going to be a unique, space-saving solution to access the trunk.
Gallery: Fisker Ocean at Goodwood FoS 2022
We also talked about the sporty Ronin four-door convertible, and I asked how they were going to keep a vehicle like that torsionally stiff without a roof. He did not want to say what technique will be employed, but the vehicle is promised to have excellent sporty handling characteristics.
What I got out of the conversation was that Mr. Fisker was very confident in the Ocean’s success, as he believes it has a combination of unique design, sustainability and know-how behind it to make it work. He also mentioned that Fisker doesn’t want to rehash other automaker’s designs and that the company is striving to offer something new, which is why all the new Fiskers revealed are slightly quirky in some way.