Starting a successful car company from scratch is an incredibly steep uphill battle, a reality that Henrik Fisker knows all too well. Following a distinguished design career at legendary marques like BMW and Aston Martin, the talented designer repeatedly tried to carve out his own path. His journey includes custom coachbuilding with Fisker Coachbuild, the striking but short-lived Karma plug-in hybrid under Fisker Automotive, and the niche VLF Automotive. His latest and most ambitious endeavor, Fisker Inc., targeted the mainstream electric vehicle market with the 2023 Fisker Ocean One. This mid-size electric SUV promised to blend cutting-edge sustainable materials, highly creative features, and competitive performance to challenge established premium segment rivals.
The Ocean One was a limited-production launch edition equipped with everything found on the top-of-the-line Extreme model, along with a few unique aesthetic touches. On paper, it presented a compelling package: a dual-motor all-wheel-drive powertrain, a massive 106.5-kWh battery pack, a unique solar-cell roof, and an aggressive stance. However, behind the eye-catching design and innovative features lied a vehicle that felt rushed to market. With Fisker Inc. subsequently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2024, our instrumented test of this rare EV reveals both the bright flashes of innovation and the premature development cycles that ultimately sealed the company’s fate.
Bold Exterior Design and Sustainable Interior Comfort
Standing slightly longer and wider than a conventional premium crossover like the Volvo XC60, the two-row 2023 Fisker Ocean One commands serious road presence. The exterior styling is undeniably aggressive, characterized by muscular bodywork, pronounced widening at the arches, and a sharp, high kickup toward the rear of the beltline. Draped in an optional $4,500 matte Big Sur Blue paint and riding on massive 22-inch F6 Vortex black aluminum wheels, our test vehicle routinely turned heads and drew compliments from curious onlookers during its time in our custody.
Stepping inside, the cabin comfortably accommodates four adults, though taller rear-seat passengers may notice that the bottom seat cushions are mounted slightly too low and short to provide optimal thigh support. In keeping with Henrik Fisker’s eco-friendly brand ethos, sustainability takes center stage throughout the interior. The upholstery in our Ocean One consisted of Mali-Blu microsuede, complemented by a variety of recycled plastics, synthetic materials, and repurposed carpets. While this heavy reliance on textiles and eco-conscious surfaces delivers a clean, functional environment, the overall tactile feel falls short of the rich, premium luxury expected at this price point.
On the Road: Decent Dynamics Marred by Calibration Quirks
From a pure driving dynamics perspective, the Ocean performs decently in everyday scenarios. The electronic power steering feels accurate, weight builds predictably, and the brake pedal feel offers a smooth transition between regenerative and friction braking. However, it is far from perfect. Ride comfort degrades noticeably over fractured pavement, where the suspension fails to filter out harsh impacts. Furthermore, our sound-level testing recorded 69 decibels inside the cabin at 70 mph, lacking the hushed, serene atmosphere that defines many modern electric vehicles.
The dual-motor powertrain produces a combined 564 horsepower and 543 pound-feet of torque. When using launch control, this heavy SUV rockets from 0 to 60 mph in a blistering 3.9 seconds and clears the quarter-mile in 12.5 seconds at 110 mph. Yet, accessing that performance in daily driving is frustrating due to baffling drive mode calibrations.
In the default, economy-focused “Earth” mode, accelerator response from a standstill is incredibly sluggish and inconsistent. Keeping pace with normal urban traffic requires a deeply mashed pedal, which feels ridiculous for a vehicle with mid-five-hundred horsepower. Switching to “Fun” mode sharpens response, making the SUV behave much more like the responsive EV it should be.
Despite the straight-line speed, the Ocean One is no sports car. Around our 300-foot skidpad, the undefeatable electronic stability-control system intervened heavily, limiting lateral cornering grip to a mediocre 0.79 g. Stopping distances were similarly long for a premium vehicle. The 5,389-pound SUV required 173 feet to come to a complete stop from 70 mph and a lengthy 350 feet from 100 mph.
Genuine Innovation Meets Baffling Ergonomics
Fisker packed the Ocean with a collection of genuinely novel, outside-the-box ideas. The most entertaining is “California Mode,” which uses a single button press to lower all four main side windows, drop the rear liftgate glass, and retract the large panoramic sunroof. It even lowers the tiny, rear quarter-windows—affectionately dubbed “doggie windows.” Additionally, the massive 17.1-inch central infotainment touchscreen features a motorized rotation mechanism, pivoting from a vertical portrait layout to a horizontal landscape orientation called “Hollywood Mode” for watching videos while parked.
The vehicle also features clever interior packaging, such as a small “taco tray” table that deploys from the driver’s side dashboard and a second folding table built directly into the center console armrest.
The integrated solar roof (SolarSky) is another impressive technical feat. On our top-tier example, these solar cells are claimed to provide over 2,000 miles of driving range per year under ideal sunny conditions. In practice, the solar roof successfully powered roughly 10 percent of our total miles driven during testing. Efficiency proved to be a strong suit; the Ocean achieved an observed 79 MPGe and delivered a highly respectable 290 miles of driving range during our real-world 75-mph highway range test, capitalizing on its dense 106.5-kWh usable battery capacity.
| 2023 Fisker Ocean One Specifications | Performance & Test Results |
|---|---|
| Powertrain Type | Dual Permanent-Magnet Synchronous AC Motors |
| Combined Power / Torque | 564 hp / 543 lb-ft |
| Battery Pack Capacity | 106.5 kWh liquid-cooled lithium-ion |
| Curb Weight | 5,389 lb |
| 0–60 mph Acceleration | 3.9 sec |
| 1/4-Mile Sprint | 12.5 sec @ 110 mph |
| Braking, 70–0 mph | 173 ft |
| Roadholding, 300-ft Skidpad | 0.79 g |
| 75-mph Highway Range | 290 miles |
| Base / As-Tested Price | $71,437 / $79,212 |
Unfortunately, these innovations are heavily offset by poor ergonomic choices. The steering-wheel-mounted cruise control utilizes a clunky thumb-wheel paired with entirely opaque buttons that offer no backlighting or clear labels. Simple data tracking is needlessly difficult; Fisker buried the odometer deep within secondary submenus on the touchscreen. Furthermore, while the rearview mirror features a helpful electronic camera feed display to bypass the thick rear pillars, the screen’s focal length requires drivers to completely refocus their eyes every time they glance up from the road, a trait that quickly grows exhausting during long drives.
Premature Production and Quality Glitches
The most glaring issue during our week with the Ocean One was the sheer volume of software and hardware quality glitches, strongly indicating that development was rushed to meet strict delivery deadlines. The exterior electronic touch button for the rear liftgate routinely failed to open the latch fully. The automatic climate-control system suffered from wild temperature swings, occasionally refusing to generate sufficient cabin heat before suddenly blasting freezing air.
Connectivity was equally troublesome. A previously paired smartphone would consistently fail to automatically reconnect upon restarting the vehicle, despite remaining saved in the system’s memory menu.
Furthermore, the vehicle failed to retain basic driving preferences. After every startup cycle, the powertrain defaulted to a low-regeneration braking profile, even though the central settings menu clearly displayed “High” as the active selection.
During our high-performance acceleration runs, the programmed launch-control software ceased functioning entirely after just two consecutive attempts, flashing an error message. To top it off, the vehicle features what is indisputably the loudest, most intrusive turn-signal clicker in modern automotive history. Resolving these intertwined software bugs and hardware integration issues requires tedious validation work, but the clock ultimately ran out for the startup automaker.
The Untimely Demise of Fisker Inc.
Fisker Inc., headquartered in Los Angeles, officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on June 17, 2024, bringing an abrupt end to the company’s seven-year run. Founded in late 2016 by Henrik Fisker and his wife, Geeta Gupta-Fisker, the startup aimed to leverage asset-light contract manufacturing. They partnered with manufacturing giant Magna Steyr to build the Ocean at their facility in Graz, Austria. While the first US-specification customer vehicles successfully made it to American roads in June 2023, financial stability remained permanently out of reach.
Following a highly problematic earnings report in early 2024, the company was forced to halt development on its future vehicle pipeline, which included the smaller Pear SUV and the unique Alaska pickup truck, alongside laying off 15 percent of its workforce. As critical cash-infusion talks with an established global automaker collapsed, Fisker cut Ocean retail prices by up to $24,000 in a desperate attempt to generate liquid capital.
The final blow landed in early June 2024, when the company issued a safety recall for 6,864 Ocean vehicles over a critical control-unit defect. Unable to sustain operations, the company entered liquidation, agreeing to sell its remaining inventory of 3,231 vehicles and all proprietary software source code to a commercial leasing firm. The Ocean stands as a fascinating, flawed testament to how difficult it remains to survive in the fierce modern automotive landscape.
Let us know your thoughts on Henrik Fisker’s ambitious electric SUV and the company’s sudden closure in the comments section below.