The Fisker Ocean is an all-electric SUV from car designer Henrik Fisker. It features a solar panel roof
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00:00This is the Fisker Ocean Extreme, an electric SUV with a solar panelled roof and windows
00:14which can do this.
00:28It was designed by Henrik Fisker, a man who's tried to build his own car before...twice.
00:34His first two attempts were expensive cars made for affluent buyers.
00:39But this time, Fisker has gone for the hottest market segment in town, the electric mid-size
00:46SUV.
00:48Tesla and Lucid both produced expensive exclusive super sedans as their first models, building
00:54grand prestige whilst producing low-volume, high-priced vehicles here in California.
00:59Fisker's plan is to do the exact opposite of that, an affordable mass-market SUV which
01:08is being produced on another continent.
01:12So will it work?
01:14Will it be third time's the charm for Mr Fisker?
01:22Let's begin by talking about what it is.
01:24This, as I said, is the Ocean Extreme.
01:27This Extreme has 564 horsepower and 543 pound-feet of torque.
01:34There's actually something very interesting about the Fisker model line-up, and that is
01:39this.
01:40There are two different batteries available in these vehicles.
01:43You might think, yes, yes, we know a standard range and an extended range, and that is true
01:48to one degree or another.
01:49But beyond that, there's a chemical component which is different between the two motors.
01:54The first is a hyper-range 113 kilowatt-hour lithium nickel manganese cobalt battery focused
02:01on, you guessed it, range and performance.
02:04Then there's a 73 kilowatt-hour lithium iron phosphorate battery which has fast charging
02:09capabilities and is more focused on longevity.
02:12Put that all together and what you get is this.
02:14The Ocean Extreme, when we tested it, achieved a 0-to-60 time of 3.7 seconds.
02:20That is very good, especially when you consider that the equivalent Model Y performance dual
02:26motor took 4.5 seconds.
02:29Yeah, now you're interested.
02:31It'll do a quarter mile in 12.3 seconds at 110.6 miles per hour.
02:36That's despite its 5,358 pound curb weight.
02:41And I'll tell you another thing that'll impress you.
02:43This Ocean Extreme, were it to be on the standard 20-inch wheels, would indeed have
02:49an EPA verified range of 360 miles.
02:55That is very impressive.
02:57That is better than the Model Y.
03:00Now of course, we at Motor Trends like to perform our own range testing, a real-world
03:04range test that incorporates traffic and wind and all those other myriad things that ultimately
03:11slow you down and hamper your range.
03:12We did just that, and the results were fascinating.
03:17The Fisker Ocean, in our test, had a real-world range of 292 miles.
03:23And get this, that Tesla Model Y performance we tested, 229 miles.
03:37Before his name was on the front and back and side and top and inside and outside and
03:42underneath the car, Henrik Fisker made a career designing vehicles for other people.
03:46The likes of the BMW Z8 Roadster, the original X5, the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage, Fisker
03:53had a hand in designing them all.
03:55So when it came time to design the Ocean, he drew on all that experience and has managed
04:01to achieve something that I think is pretty remarkable because what we've got in the Ocean
04:05is a vehicle which looks all at once familiar and yet unique.
04:09Sure, there's shades of Range Rover here and there, but when you look past that, the Fisker's
04:14classic, unfussy three-box shape gives way to an SUV design that's handsome and playful.
04:22It's all about the proportions.
04:24I love this snub-nosed front end.
04:26I really like the way that the headlights push in toward the centre of the vehicle,
04:29mirroring this front line here, which is very interesting.
04:32Though I did just work out after hours of trying that this front doesn't open, which
04:36is stupid.
04:38Anyway, coming around, I love these wide wheel arches which are filled spectacularly by those
04:44optional 22-inch wheels.
04:45Those are really handsome.
04:47And then what else?
04:48Ah, yes, of course, the roofline.
04:50What I think is the pièce de résistance of this car.
04:52I love the way that it tapers back toward this rear point here, almost giving like a
04:57speedtail kind of element.
04:59It's really nice.
05:00The jury seems to be out on this area.
05:02There's a lot going on in this area.
05:05I've sat with it for a few days, and you know what?
05:09I like it.
05:15Let's talk about the interior.
05:17It's definitely lent into the Tesla school of ultra-minimalism, which is not my favourite,
05:23but there is enough going on, I think, to hold my interest.
05:26I certainly like the mix of textures and materials, which, by the way, are all ecologically sound.
05:34Fisker have put an emphasis on sustainability in everything they're doing, from battery
05:39technology to, indeed, materials used.
05:42And so things like this micro suede here is artificial, no Alcantara, no leather.
05:49These plastics, wherever possible, are recycled.
05:53It goes further.
05:54Surfaces are minimally painted to reduce potential impact on the environment.
05:58Fisker are thinking about the full lifecycle of this vehicle, up to and beyond the point
06:03of obsolescence.
06:04And I've got to say, the interior feels no worse for it.
06:07It's a very nice interior.
06:09It's definitely more plush than the equivalent Tesla interior.
06:13The solar-panelled roof, that is really cool, isn't it?
06:17Such a simple idea, something I feel like people have been talking about for years,
06:20that Fisker actually had the guts to go out and do it.
06:22And it's not just a dinner party conversation piece.
06:26This roof will actually attribute real range to your ocean.
06:29In fact, Fisker say that in ideal conditions, the roof can produce in excess of 1,500 miles
06:36of range into the battery every year.
06:39That's impressive, right?
06:41The focal point of any modern-day car and EV, certainly, nowadays, is, of course, the
06:47giant central touchscreen, and this car does, indeed, have one.
06:51But it has that cool party trick, right?
06:53Hollywood mode, as they like to call it.
06:54You hold this button down here, and it says,
06:57it does display, cannot rotate while driving, please park and enjoy.
07:00OK, we'll do that while we're parked.
07:03Anyway, I'll tell you about it.
07:04It's called Hollywood mode.
07:05It rotates the screen from this portrait formatting to a landscape orientation.
07:09It's really nice.
07:11And it allows you to enjoy Netflix and things like that in the format that they were supposed
07:16to be enjoyed in.
07:17Very smart.
07:17I still think the coolest thing about this car is California mode.
07:26It's just a great idea.
07:29We just slow down by the coast, drop all eight windows, including the panoramic sunroof,
07:41solar panels sliding all the way back, and just enjoy where you are.
07:47It's pretty cool.
07:49California mode really is a good idea, as is the solar roof.
07:53And Fisker's commitment to not thinking a car's environmental impact begins and ends
07:58with its method of propulsion when it comes to its use of materials.
08:03Sadly, however, that's sort of where my praise for the Fisker ends.
08:06The controls are hit and miss, I would say.
08:15The steering wheel is huge.
08:18It's massive.
08:19It's like a serving platter, and it's also very thick.
08:25So thick that I sort of find myself sometimes not quite having the amount of purchase that
08:31I want on it.
08:32It's got this triangular shape with rounded corners, and yeah, I don't know.
08:38And these bits here, these sort of central spooky bits where your hands kind of want
08:44to go as a driver when you're hustling it, they're huge, and there's really very little
08:50grip here.
08:51So I don't love that.
08:52I don't think that's maybe the best thought out thing in the world.
08:55Of course, with it being huge, you kind of have to do quite big movements to get it to
09:02move.
09:03You're sort of steering the barge, so that's not great.
09:06It's not particularly driver focused in that respect, but then again, of course, it's a
09:09midsize SUV, so we're not looking at a LMP1 car here, are we?
09:16But it does have pretty good performance.
09:18At the moment, we're in fun mode.
09:20Oh, yeah, we should talk about that, I guess.
09:23The three driver modes, well, they're called Earth, Fun, and Hyper, which the cynic in
09:30me absolutely hates.
09:32I have to be honest, I just, you know, Earth, OK, I get it.
09:36It's, you know, the most economical, maybe, whatever, but Fun and Hyper for the mid and
09:43upper performance levels, it just doesn't, well, I just I hate it.
09:47I hate that.
09:48I really do.
09:50That's like if you got into the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS and they'd rebranded first gear
09:57as go-go and second gear as wee.
10:01I just, you don't, there's some things you don't need to be quirky about, you know.
10:05I know it's an arbitrary thing to get angry about, but I hate it.
10:09Anyway, we're in hyper mode now, so let's give it a go.
10:17It's good, decent linear power, of course, all that torque being put to good use.
10:21I've no real complaints when it comes to the suspension, handles everything fairly well.
10:28It's not particularly plush.
10:30There's a pretty decent amount of vertical bounce when you go over things, it's fine.
10:37What's more concerning, I think, is the way that the power is applied.
10:46There's sort of very little in the way of settling the power in.
10:51When you put your foot down, it kind of just gives you what you want.
10:55I want a little bit more refinement, like, that's like a pretty aggressive amount of
11:02body roll back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
11:04When I stab the accelerator pedal, like, there's no point, look at that, lateral, whoa, yeah.
11:10I'm going to stop doing that now, slow down.
11:13Slowing down, it's fine, it can slow down.
11:16Pedal's pretty wooden.
11:18I don't, also, can you hear that?
11:20When I, when I, when you brake, it takes longer to kind of come up and then it goes, yeah,
11:29it's just a little bit rudimentary, it's a little bit unrefined.
11:34Despite having recently upgraded the operating system of all Oceans to OS 2.0, owners are
11:41still reporting problems.
11:43Indeed, over our time with the car, we experienced a myriad of software issues, glitches and
11:48bugs.
11:49It's rough around the edges.
11:50There's a lot of things I've observed over my few days with this car, do not fill me
11:55with confidence.
11:57You rotate the screen from portrait to landscape and the image stays in the orientation that
12:02it was before, so then you're looking at a sideways screen.
12:04That's not ideal.
12:05I've had real trouble with the connectivity of this screen.
12:09It's been buggy.
12:10It's been glitchy.
12:11Sometimes the maps have completely froze on me and left me kind of stranded.
12:15You have to do a hard reset by pressing these two buttons here, something which I shouldn't
12:19have to do.
12:20Let's be honest.
12:21This is not a pre-production car.
12:22I went through the process, Bluetooth, wired connection, I tried everything.
12:25I couldn't get the phone to work.
12:28I just couldn't.
12:29It would cycle through every three or four seconds and say, connected, disconnected, connecting,
12:32connected, disconnecting, connecting, then it would try and connect to Brian's iPhone.
12:36Who is Brian?
12:37I don't know, but he's not in this car and his iPhone's probably not within 500 miles
12:40of here.
12:41Very frustrating.
12:42Things like that.
12:43Come on.
12:44There's no excuse.
12:45There really isn't.
12:46It's disappointing, actually.
12:47I find that keyless entry is intermittent to the point where I've never really seen it
12:51work.
12:52Sometimes it doesn't recognize that the key's in there.
12:54Sometimes it won't start up.
12:55You have to get out and get back in, lock it.
12:57It's just all these little things.
12:58It's stuff that car companies sweat over.
13:01Put these cars through hundreds of thousands of miles of testing and getting in and out
13:05and testing all these different things to make sure that this kind of annoying stuff,
13:09the small stuff, doesn't go wrong on you.
13:13Fortunately, Fisker have still got some of those issues.
13:16This thing has seesaw suspension that rocks back and forwards and kind of jerks you around
13:21a little bit.
13:22Whoa, Jesus, flip.
13:24It has an accelerator pedal that wants to launch you into orbit.
13:28It has steering that wants to rattle the fillings from your teeth.
13:33And you put that all together and you're kind of on a bit of a hell to skelter.
13:36It's a bit of a wild ride.
13:39It's kind of fun, but it's also kind of scary.
13:42I really, really want this car to be good.
13:44I want this car company to succeed, but it just doesn't quite hit the mark.
13:50It's not quite there.
13:51I think these are all fixable problems.
13:52I think these are all things Fisker can fix.
13:55It's just a question of how soon can they fix them.
13:57And that brings us on to the other great storm cloud, which looms large over this car and
14:04this review.
14:06Fisker is a company in trouble.
14:09As of this recording, the company has halted production.
14:11The stock has halted trading and Fisker even slashed the prices of their remaining inventory
14:16by almost 40% in order to hopefully generate some sales.
14:22Without a cash injection, the company will go under.
14:26The Fisker Ocean is rough around the edges, but I love the way it looks.
14:30I don't mind the way it drives.
14:33I think a lot of the touches which make this car completely unique, the solar panel on
14:38the roof, all of those things are quite honestly fantastic.
14:44I like the idea of this car, just not the reality.