by Wallace Wyss –
Been following Henrik Fisker since he worked for Aston Martin and Jaguar. We love his sports cars for their sheer sensuous shapes but SUVs are a little harder to make sexy.
In Manhattan Beach, CA., where his new company is headquartered, he has unveiled the production Fisker Ocean, a 5-seater electric SUV for 2022. Here’s my opinion of the design for what it’s worth:
REAR Thin blade taillights reminiscent of Range Rover, looks expensive from the rear. Wide stance really stands out in rear view.
SIDE Not so stylish, roof resembles a Toyota Land Cruiser of some years ago. Fender flares are very masculine–square shapes with rounded corners. Whole lot of glass in the roof, not sure how you are shielded on a hot day.
FRONT I guess the upper slit is not the main air intake, must be the larger one below. But what am I worried about air intake for? It’s an electric. Fisker, like a lot of other EV makers, isn’t ready to go grille-less like Tesla. In fact, Tesla owns that grille-less look…
IN SUM It is at least a “B” but it’s hard to stand out in the SUV world, soon to be over-run with electrics.
The Hummer electric at least has a removable front roof in some variations. If you remove a center roof bar, it becomes a targa. If the base model of the Ocean is only around $40K (going up to $70,000 for the most luxurious), it would be a good looking vehicle at that price, looking more expensive than it is. There will be different wheels and tires for versions owners plan to use off road a lot.
As far as we know he doesn’t have near the capitalization that some of his rivals have (a mere $1.2 billion) but, hey, people are so desperate that they missed Tesla in the early days, they might save him by investing. In EV start ups, it’s the Wild west days!
We got to hand it to Henrik–he’s always trying and someday he will have a winner but up against him and all these other EV startups is the seemingly unstoppable Tesla.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss reports on new cars on Autotalk, a radio show broadcast from KUCR FM Riverside. He can be reached at Photojournalistpro2@gmail.com
Los Angeles Auto Show press day shot of the Ocean from 11-17-2021
-Looking tq this lower-down -looking-up view I would say there’s a bit of “fortress mentality,” going on, i.e. you are high in your fortress looking through gunslit windows down at the riff-raff
This is not a very exciting design in my opinion.