Henrik Fisker Takes Another Swing at Luxury Car-Building

From the February/March 2022 issue of Car and Driver.

Henrik Fisker’s most iconic designs were chic BMWs and Aston Martins, and the Fisker Karma was a sporty sedan. So it may seem like a leap to go from high-end toys to the Fisker Ocean, a forthcoming affordable electric SUV, but he says it’s a smart choice. “The world’s most sold segment is SUVs. I’ve already designed a lot of luxury cars. I don’t have to prove that we can design a sports car. Other companies [making EVs], they’re making $100,000 vehicles. That segment will look crowded.” The Austrian manufacturer Magna Steyr is building the Ocean in front- and all-wheel-drive configurations. The base Ocean uses a 275-hp motor and offers a range of around 250 miles; all-wheel-drive Ultra and Extreme trims have two motors good for a combined 540 and 550 horsepower, respectively. Prices will start under $40,000.

Henrik Fisker showed up too soon. Fisker Automotive’s ill-fated first car, the shapely Karma, was a plug-in-hybrid luxury car that beat Tesla’s Model S to market but succumbed to financial and technical disasters. He’s ready to try again, with not just one but multiple electric vehicles in various states of production. The Ocean is the closest to market, scheduled to begin deliveries in November. There’s a mystery model called the PEAR (Personal Electric Automotive Revolution), which Fisker will describe only as small, affordable, and unlike anything else. At the time of our interview, a third was but a swoopy clay model in his studio. And Fisker says a fourth design is coming soon. It’s a lot to take on at once, but Fisker says the world is finally ready.

C/D: What went wrong with the Fisker Karma?

Fisker: I was too early. I thought there must be a demand for a really cool, sexy, environmentally friendly car. Reclaimed wood from the California fires. A vegan interior, which we called EcoChic. It just went over everybody’s head. We literally had people buying the car going, “What’s that plug on the side?” It was an electric vehicle with a range extender, but people didn’t care. They were putting gas in it—didn’t bother to plug it in, didn’t care about the reclaimed wood. This was more than a year before the Tesla Model S launched.

So there were philosophical challenges, but also mechanical ones, yeah?

We took a big risk in technology on the battery. That company failed, and we couldn’t continue. It was not like today, with many different battery companies. LG was working with GM, Panasonic was with Tesla, and then there was A123 Systems, an American startup, which was a huge risk. And it turned out to be too risky, because they went bankrupt as we were launching the car.

What’s different with the Ocean?

Let’s say there are three fundamental things that I learned from the Karma. No, four. One, timing is everything. Number two, you’ve got to have enough money from the beginning to the end of the launch. I didn’t want to really kick off this program until we had a billion dollars, which we raised last year. You can’t build something start-stop. That kills you. So, number two, get all the money. Number three, you have to look at technology and assess the risk. Battery is the biggest risk in [electric] cars, so we spent a long time working closely on a deal with CATL [Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., a lithium-ion battery manufacturer].

What’s number four?

The manufacturing of the vehicle—we need a solid manufacturing partner. We ended up with two: Magna Steyr to do the Ocean and Foxconn to do the PEAR. I’m going into a factory where people have worked together for 20 years, where they’re currently running luxury vehicles. We are going to go on the same line where BMWs and Toyotas are being built by the same people. I mean, if that’s not de-risking, I don’t know what de-risking is. The quality of this car is, in my view, the most de-risked aspect of the entire program.

Speaking of quality, the initial response to the Karma was sky-high. You won awards. Then things started to fall apart, both literally and financially. How do you build up the confidence to try again?

We took a beating for having a lot of technical issues. But what I realized during that time is that people were against electrification. They were just against EVs. They wanted to kill it. There were stories about battery fires, but we never had a lithium-ion battery fire. We had a fan fire. We had cars flooded in the port, and the insurance company said that to get the insurance money, we needed to be above the waterline. We were one inch below. So there were days I woke up and thought everything’s against me. You want to sink away and die in your own sorrow. But you have to decide, do I get up even if it hurts, or do I stay down? I got up. The only thing I really know how to do is design a car. I’m not really good at much else. Well, I’m also pretty good at barbecuing, but that’s about it. I love cars, and I don’t think we’re ever going to get rid of them. I don’t believe in a future where everybody’s taking public transportation. I mean, I grew up with it in Denmark. I never, ever woke up dreaming to take the bus. I dreamt to drive a car—to have my own car.

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