New Fisker Ocean 2023 review

Verdict

The Fisker Ocean is not just another all-electric SUV. Some real thought and care has gone into its design and manufacture to make it one of the cleverest and most sustainable cars on the road. It’ll be an easy vehicle to own, if not the most rewarding to drive, with the usual caveat of waiting to see how the firm ride translates onto UK roads. That probably won’t matter to most owners who’ll love the long range, style, space, quality and tech. We suspect that the Sport model, with its lower price and fatter tyres, could become a real favourite and maybe even grab itself an extra half star.

Of the numerous start-ups aiming for your attention (and cash) in the electric vehicle space, Fisker is different. In fact, you might not call it a start-up at all given this is boss Henrik Fisker’s second attempt at a car company. 

Let’s not dwell on Fisker Automotive’s ill-fated Fisker Karma, other than to say it’s given Herik’s latest company, Fisker Inc., the benefit of hindsight. And it seems to have paid off – the new Fisker Ocean is an impressive first effort.

There are other differences with the ‘new’ Fisker, too. This is a car company that doesn’t build cars. Like Apple with its high-tech products, Fisker gets other people to build its cars for it. In the case of the Ocean, it’s contract manufacturing company Magna – not a bad place to start as they’re responsible for building cars for BMW, Mercedes and, more recently, Ineos. The Apple similarities go further as Fisker’s next model – the Pear – will be made by Foxconn, which makes many of the world’s iPhones.

Henrik Fisker proudly told us that he wants the Ocean to be “the world’s most sustainable car,” producing impressive and believable stats to back that up. Magna builds the car in a ‘carbon net zero plant’, while the thinking that’s gone into every element of design and production to ensure all aspects of the car – and every one of the company’s suppliers – is as sustainable as possible is impressive. This is truly a vegan-friendly car; leather isn’t an option.

Fisker’s first car had to be an SUV, according to Fisker – demand from the world’s car buyers couldn’t lead to anything else. But with his sports car background, this is an SUV with attitude – and that comes across in the innovative styling and clever design features.

The bluff front with its super-slim LED lights might be quite traditional SUV fare, but it’s well executed to give the car a premium look. The side glass is more radical, sweeping upwards towards the rear to finish in an opening ‘doggy window’ behind the B-pillar. Despite the tall proportions, the window line, along with some clever surfacing, hides the car’s bulk to give it a sportier look than most SUVs without dropping the roof line and limiting rear space.

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Those doggy windows, along with the opening sunroof on our car and the tailgate glass, all slide open at the touch of a button – along with front and rear door windows – to give a close-to-open-top feel to the car. Fisker calls it California mode in a nod to the company’s home state.

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There’s more novel Californian thinking inside, too. Fisker says that nobody ever uses a glovebox other than putting some paperwork in there and forgetting it. So there’s no glovebox; instead there’s a pull-out tray for the passenger to work on. Not to be left out, a smaller tray folds out from beneath the centre armrest for the driver, too. Fisker says it’s for drivers who might want to snack when they’ve pulled over, so he calls it a Taco Tray – UK buyers might prefer to call it a fish and chip flap.

That opening sunroof on our top-spec (other than the limited Ocean One launch edition) Extreme car has a solar panel integrated into it – a nod to Fisker’s Karma a decade or so ago. It might not have the same effect in the UK, but in places like California or Arizona where the sun actually shines, Fisker claims that it can add up to 1,500 miles-worth of charge every year. In the UK, it might add a tiny bit of power when the car’s been standing, rather than losing a tiny bit.

This – along with the fit and finish, inside and out – all seems very premium and very expensive. Our car, at £60,880, certainly fits that bill. But the version we’re really looking forward to driving is the Sport model that does without some of the most advanced tech – it ‘just’ gets a full-length panoramic roof with no solar panel and no fancy swivelling screen, for example – but it looks the same (but with 20-inch wheels), gets pretty much the same quality inside and costs just £35,970. Sure, it’s only two-wheel drive and gets a smaller, lower-tech 80kWh (usable capacity) battery that delivers a  claimed range of 273 miles, but for the quality, space and tech that offers – and for the premium look and feel – that’s a sensational price.

The Extreme model still stacks up pretty well, but the best-seller is likely to be the £49,880 Ultra car, which does without a few things like the Solar Sky roof. But like the Extreme it gets a huge 105kWh battery that gives the Ocean an impressive claimed range of up to 440 miles. And, of course, performance is impressive, too – in Boost mode, the car will get from 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds.

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If the quality of the exterior impresses – as it should with its makers Magna also counting Mercedes and BMW as clients – swinging open the door reveals a clean-looking, comfortable and high-quality interior. Hidden vents sit across the dash, with their direction controlled via the generous 17.3-inch touchscreen, but there is a row of physical buttons beneath the screen to control temperature, demisting and audio volume. Sustainable fabric across the dash warms things up, and a thin, metallic-effect strip running the width of the dash adds to the posh feel.

As well as the large touchscreen, which rotates into ‘Hollywood mode’ and comes with video streaming apps to let you watch a movie while charging, there’s a slim display in front of the driver. There’s currently no Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, though. We discussed this at length with Henrik Fisker who says the car is ready for both and that he will monitor customer reaction, but he wants initial customers to interact with Fisker’s own systems first – and he wants to keep more of the data on customer usage to learn and make the car better. Those improvements – possibly to include Apple and Android systems – will all come via regular software-over-the-air updates.

To be fair to Fisker, the user experience of the touchscreen is a good one, again with some simple clever thinking. How often have you been looking at the navigation screen, only for your passenger to change the radio station or you to take a call and the navigation disappears just when you need it most? Simple, Fisker makes sure there’s always a portion of the screen that shows the navigation instructions.

Flicking through the various menus to select (or de-select) the numerous and expected driver assistance features is simple, too – while there’s also Fisker Intelligent Pilot to do some of the driving for you.

We liked the audio system, too – our car got the Fisker Pulse system powered by ELS Studio 3D with plenty of power but without losing too much detail. It’ll be a good match for the screen in Hollywood mode and a blockbuster movie – or part of one – while you’re sat charging and eating your Taco. 

The seats are another innovation with as few seams as possible, while the plastics around the cabin – which all feel good – have been moulded in a way that makes them as sustainable as possible.

The driving position could be better, though – we’d like a bit more steering wheel adjustment to pull it closer to the driver; it’ll feel a little far away for some. Visibility out is good, with large side mirrors, but even if you set the seat as high as it will go, you have no idea where the front of the car is; it’s pretty invisible. With that in mind, perhaps one of the first software updates could be for the front cameras (of which there are many) to come on at slow speeds so you know where the nose of the car is in relation to obstacles.

Step into the back and passengers will be just as happy, especially if you’re in the middle seat. EV owners will be used to a flat floor, but the centre console is raised in the Fisker Ocean to let the middle passenger slide their feet further forward than usual.

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If there’s no middle passenger, the armrest in our car featured controls for the climate control, while there’s a fold out panel with a couple of USB charging sockets. Up front, driver and passenger both get wireless smartphone charging.

The boot, at 476 litres, is nice and square with a low, flat loading lip, capacity rising to 918 litres with the rear seats folded. The floor folds up to reveal more storage underneath for cables and the luggage cover, and also features three hooks to secure shopping bags – another clever touch. As is the rear door glass that will drop independently – as well as in California mode – so you can drop stuff into the car without opening the boot door or carry longer loads.

Fisker has had a bit of fun, too – hidden around the car are a few ‘easter eggs’; graphics of a woman surfer – another nod to California. We’ll give you a clue to find one: check out the rear screen demister.

Things are all pretty positive so far, but what’s the Fisker Ocean like to drive? The answer is okay – which is probably good enough for most buyers.

As is usual with many EVs, you just get in with the key somewhere on your person, touch the brake pedal and the car springs to life. It’ll default to Earth mode, which will maximise range by limiting power and the climate control, but will probably be what most people use for most of the time. Fun mode does what it says on the tin, similarly Hyper will work with the Boost mode to give maximum performance and 3.7 seconds to 60mph will certainly be an eye-opener – literally.

There are three levels of brake regeneration, but as with the pedal feel, we’d like a little more instant reaction when slowing. When you use the left pedal, there’s a slight dead zone at the top of the pedal travel – in layman’s terms, they feel a bit spongy. These are early cars and things should improve, we’re told.

The steering, while accurate enough, feels a little springy, lacking any delicacy. Again, it’ll probably be okay for most owners, but could do with a bit more feel and a sharper response. The wheel itself feels a little cheap to hold compared with the quality of the rest of the car, too.

With such a big battery, this is a heavy car and at times, especially when braking hard into tighter corners, it feels its weight – you’ll just learn to brake a bit earlier and take a more relaxed approach. Body control is okay, but comfy though those smart seats are in normal driving, they don’t hold you too well in corners. Oh, and there’s no lumber adjustment on them either.

The biggest concern – as with so many EVs – is the ride. This is a firm-riding car, although it’s better than the likes of the Tesla Model Y. There’s been plenty of testing done in the UK – Fisker’s Magic Works special projects arm is based in Banbury, Oxfordshire – so we hope it won’t be even worse in the UK. While you’ll get the odd bump that will send a shiver through the car, we don’t think it’s a deal breaker – as we say, there are many worse riding EVs out there and not many that ride really well.

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The Sport model on its 20-inch wheels and fatter tyres will probably ride better, but with a designer as CEO, Fiskers are always going to have big, stylish wheels in each corner.

That range claim will be a real draw for buyers and efficiency on our long test route in Austria where the Ocean is built was good. After the best part of a day’s mixed driving on twisty roads, long stretches, around the city of Vienna and at Autobahn speeds, we still had over half of the original range left – around 400km (240 miles). Impressive stuff.

If this has excited you enough to want to find out more – and we wouldn’t blame you if you did – Fisker is not only a car company without its own factory, but also one without its own dealers.

It’s all part of the company’s asset-lite approach, enabling it to keep prices down and put more into the cars, apparently. There will be some Fisker stores dotted around the country for you to go and see and drive the car – the first now open in the Westfield shopping centre in West London. But most of your interaction – including speccing, ordering and financing your car, and sorting your part-ex and arranging servicing – is likely to be done via the Fisker App.

Fisker is also promising some innovative – and good value – leasing plans, too. The plan is for the company to own the car for its whole life, leasing it to different owners – at lower prices as time moves on – before eventually recycling the whole thing.