2024 Fisker Ocean: Making waves

Henrik Fisker's latest act, an all-electric crossover, is finally hitting U.S. shores after an extended certification process with regulators and delays to fix software bugs.

The Ocean is built by Magna Steyr in Austria and therefore ineligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit. A special launch edition, the One, is sold out.

In addition to the One launch edition, three other trim levels are available: the Ocean Sport, Ultra and Extreme.

The base Ocean has a 250-mile range and a single electric motor mounted on the front axle, while the most expensive variants come with dual motors that crank out up to 550 hp, with an EPA-estimated range of up to 360 miles. The top-of-the line Extreme model, outfitted with 20-inch wheels, packs a 113-kilowatt-hour battery pack.

The Ocean is packed with novelties. There are four driving modes: Earth, Fun, Hyper and Boost.

The 17.1-inch center touchscreen in the cabin rotates vertically and horizontally. And there's a California mode that opens the roof panel, all of the side windows and rear glass to give the cabin a convertible-like makeover.

Fisker last week disclosed plans for an off-road variant, the 2024 Fisker Ocean Force-E, with additional gear for overlanding.

Also last week, Fisker formally introduced a 1,000-plus-hp, grand-touring four-door convertible called the Ronin; the Pear, a so-called sustainable city EV; and the Alaska, an all-electric pickup.

Journalists were invited to drive the Ocean, and we have rounded up some early reviews.

"True to its name, the Ocean can be anything from a smooth swell to a veritable whitecapped storm. We did not spend much time in Earth mode, which promises to take you to the moon and back on a single charge but has a tranquilizer effect on the drivetrain and is clearly more interested in regenerating energy than spending it. Fun mode is exactly that because it speeds up the throttle response, lets the car's considerable mass and momentum do their thing on a longer leash, and dishes up the full-course menu of power and torque. On wet pavement, Hyper is almost too much of a good thing. The accelerator reacts to driver inputs like a hungry Doberman greeting the mail carrier, the steering bites with instant vigor, and the electronic accident-prevention squad unleashes stability control rather late and in an uncouth manner. Depending on the type of surface and the urge of the torque feed, the transition from energy-saving front-wheel drive to traction-focused all-wheel drive varies from imperceptible to brutal.

The Ocean welcomes passengers with first-class seats, plenty of legroom and headroom, and good all-around visibility. Trimmed in a tasteful mix of synthetic materials, the cockpit is plain but not austere. The small digital instrument cluster behind the steering wheel is flanked by a large upright monitor. There is no head-up display or glovebox, but there is a so-called taco tray and a drawer under the driver's seat. The main in-cabin novelty is the rotating center screen that changes its format from portrait to landscape. The content can be mixed and matched to the user's liking, but you typically look at a large navigation map topped by a pictogram of the car in traffic. Right below it sits a floating island of buttons offering direct access to temperature control, fan speed, audio volume, and window defrosting.

Well-equipped, roomy, practical, quiet, and stylish, the Fisker is an entertaining multipurpose tool. It rides well if not with quite the same depth and malleability as a Volkswagen ID.4; it ticks all the essential performance boxes, including top speed (128 mph); and the consumption-versus-range equation also looks promising, at least on paper. The steering is, however, a little light and not quite as quick as expected, and the wide turning circle needs to tighten its belt one notch. The brakes have no trouble reeling in more than two tons of EV again and again, and they respond with welcome eagerness, but a more progressive deceleration would be welcome. Smart Traction and the dynamic torque vectoring that comes with it should improve the somewhat edgy handling and boost confidence at the limit. We'd also like to see adaptive dampers to squash the exaggerated body motions over bumpy pavement."

— Georg Kacher, Car and Driver

"The result is an SUV with good fit and finish that feels solid in operation. All the seats are comfortable and supportive, and even though there's a lot of visible plastic in the interior, it still feels like a quality place to be thanks to upscale detailing such as special striping and design motifs on the dash and seats. The Foxconn-made 17.1-inch rotating screen — it motors from landscape to portrait, which is really cool — is clear and easy to read, even with the worst of the sun's glare. There's a row of physical buttons underneath it for climate and radio controls. Bless. The rear seats offer good leg- and headroom, and the trunk is spacious with a flat load floor.

Behind the wheel, the Ocean has the strong off-the-line hustle expected of an EV. Its low center of gravity makes it feel firmly planted on the road, and it drives much smaller than it is. The steel-sprung suspension doesn't offer the same pillowy ride an air suspension would have, but the ride is still quite comfortable. In its most aggressive setting, the regenerative braking is powerful enough for one-pedal driving and seamlessly blends the switch between the friction regen brakes. There is also good weight to the steering, but we didn't find it particularly communicative. Keep in mind, though: It's a family car, not a sports car.

Let's shout out two of the Ocean's cooler features. The first is the California mode. With it, you can drop all the windows with one push of a button, but we're not just talking the side windows. California mode also lowers the small quarter windows between the C- and D-pillars as well as the rear hatch window, plus it opens the large sunroof. It's rad.

Second is the car's solar roof. Under ideal conditions, Fisker says, it'll return about 1,500 miles of range a year. Even if it doesn't do exactly that, it looks cool and is a fun talking point.

There are a couple of ergonomic nits to pick, such as the inside door handle being too unintuitively high and how the ]taco tray' — a little foldable table that deploys from the center console — can't easily unfold on the driver's side if you have water bottles in the cupholder. There's also no glove box; instead, the passenger gets their own taco tray with storage moving to underseat drawers. Also, owing to the SUV's raked profile, rearward visibility isn't the best, but there is a digital rearview mirror to rely on. And Fisker has repeated the mistake of asking occupants to move the air vents via the touchscreen rather than the tried and true method of, you know, moving the vent with your hands. It's annoying in the Rivian R1T, and it's annoying here, too. As with the other companies that have done this, including Porsche, it's a solution to a problem precisely no one was having

In our prototype drive, we noted the car's brake pedal travel was too long, and that's still the case. There is a noticeable amount of dead space at the top of the stroke before any braking happens, which makes decelerating during more spirited driving difficult to predict.

We also experienced some electronic glitches Fisker says may have been isolated to our specific vehicle. Isolated or widespread, we assume the problems are well on their way to being ironed out. One involved our test car randomly refusing to move despite it being shifted into Drive, as well as an electronic parking brake that would only sporadically automatically disengage, which it is programmed to do when drive is selected. The California mode button also ceased working for a good 20 minutes; later, all the windows dropped by themselves without anyone touching the button at all."

— Kristen Lee, Motor Trend

"How the Ocean drives is perhaps the main reason why Wired has decided not to score this EV yet. It is plenty quick in a straight line, with 0-60 mph hit in 3.7 seconds and a peak of 564 hp in Boost mode. But how it handles the corners is not great. The softness that normally accompanies urban drive settings (the Ocean has 'Earth', 'Fun', and 'Hyper' drive modes) is still there when you slip into the sportier ones, and that's disconcerting in the bends, to say the least. As a result the car doesn't feel particularly planted or connected to the road, either.

David King, senior VP of engineering at Fisker, tells me that a software fix for this is coming 'in the next few months' where the ride will be adjusted and stiffened as modes change. If this happens as King states then the ride issues of the Ocean could potentially be solved or at least drastically improved. We'll see.

Another issue in driving the Ocean bothered me: A squeaky acceleration pedal. Or rather a creaky one. Dabbing the power deal in an EV should bring about a silent forward motion. You should not hear a slight but definite creaking noise as springs and metal move. I thought this was just an initial audio annoyance that would go as the car went a few miles, but no. So I hopped into another Ocean on the brand-hosted media drive, and there it was again — and it was there all day. It's the kind of noise that not only makes one wonder about build quality (such a squeak would never be allowed in a German car, for example), but also once you hear it you cannot un-hear it. These were early-build cars, however.

After a few hours of slightly spongy handling and subtly squeaking pedals, I confess I was starting to fall out of love with the Ocean, having fallen for the design before even stepping into the car. Then I tried California Mode. Dropping all the glass on a sunny day brings all the unalloyed joy one gets from a convertible car but with the added bonus that you can switch back into covered mode at any speed, at any time. Fisker, knowing this is a killer feature, has even been sensible enough to pimp the stereo system, too, provided by ELS Studio. It is not only stupidly loud but also phenomenal in sound production. Quite literally, I could not wipe the smile from my face. California Mode is glorious, and goes a long way to mitigating the EV's failings."

— Jeremy White, Wired

"Like a lot of modern EVs, there's no start button; you just get in the Ocean, use what looks like the wiper stalk to shift into Drive, and go. Well, first you have to dig into the 17.1-inch central touchscreen to find the steering wheel adjustment controls, but then you're free to go. Slight learning curve and all that.

There are three driving modes: Earth, Fun, and Hyper, the latter of which is the only way to use boost mode. These settings don't change things like steering tune or suspension damping, however. They only alter the throttle response and increase or decrease the overall level of regenerative braking. Unable to do a bunch of hard launches for fear of upsetting the two minders Fisker sent along in the car with me, I can't really tell you if the differences in acceleration between the modes are all that noticeable. Even the slowest EVs still feel quick thanks to instant electric torque. The best thing I can say about the Ocean is that it doesn't seem like a total porker; even in Earth mode, it's light on its feet.

The regenerative braking works smoothly, so that's good. The suspension also seems appropriately damped for commuting through Orange County, though the steering is super light and pretty much lifeless in terms of feedback. The Ocean doesn't really feel terribly fun or sporty or lively, but again, this is from less than 10 minutes of driving around a business park in Huntington Beach.

There aren't any glaring fit-and-finish issues, and the 17.1-inch touchscreen responds immediately to inputs. The seats are pretty comfy, though I can't speak to long-haul butt-happiness, and there's good visibility from the driver's seat.

Fisker says it'll constantly push out over-the-air updates to keep its multimedia and driver-assistance tech suites at the top of their game, which is a good thing, since my tester seemed to be unable to stop beeping for one reason or another."

— Steven Ewing, Top Gear

"Sustainability is the company's mantra. Fisker wants to make the most sustainable electric cars in the world and (admittedly only according to the company's own lifecycle emissions study) claims the Ocean has a lighter 'whole lifecycle' carbon footprint than the Polestar 2 and Volvo XC40 Recharge – as well as most combustion-engined equivalents when judged solely on their fuel-burning daily usage phase.

The Ocean's interior has been designed with a focus on that resource-light footprint. There's more than 50 kg of recycled content in the car, from carpets to seat fabrics made of recaptured sea plastics. Its fascia moldlings are all unpainted and uncoated, so they're simpler and quicker to manufacture and easier to recycle. Its textiles avoid complicated stitching and decoration. You can't see the door speakers because they're mounted on the 'B-side' of the panel, which reduces manufacturing complexity.

In isolation, it may sound a little like a convenient excuse not to compete with the European brands on perceived quality, but Fisker's company-wide focus on sustainability seems to run much too deep to be about cost-saving.

Neither does it actually make the Ocean look or feel flimsy or cheaply put together. Sure, there's a sense of simplicity, and slight plainness, about bits of the cabin design, but given the car's price positioning (which we'll come to), it's all easily acceptable. The cabin has a tidy, pared-back look and layout, with a column-mounted shift selector, simple digital instrumentation, and most secondary controls contained within the 17.1in portrait-orientated touchscreen console. There are separate physical controls for the heating and air-con, though, as well as for the windows and sunroof."

— Matt Saunders, Autocar

"The car I drove was a launch-spec, top trim 'Ocean One' machine. It didn't act like a real hunkered-down performance EV despite offering such lofty performance. That's not a bad thing at all. Its ride is soft but still offers good body control. It doesn't feel heavy. Likewise, torque isn't a full hit right at the beginning. It ramps up smoothly feeling sort of like a turbocharger coming into boost. It's not jarring in the slightest despite sprinting to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds.

The real magic of the Fisker Ocean, however, is not in its performance. It's in all of the strangeness the vehicle offers, which is mostly good strangeness. The car has no glovebox, for instance, replacing the conventional dash-mounted storage with compartments below the seats for the passenger as well as the driver. Every window beside the windshield also retracts fully, including the tailgate and rear quarter glass. Combine this with an infotainment display that transitions from portrait to landscape with help from an electric motor, a center console that is completely free-floating to give the rear passengers more legroom, and an airplane-style meal tray that extends from the center console and, well, this thing is just weird.

Beyond the nuances of carbon neutrality, the Ocean was a fun car to throw around in the limited time I drove it at Magna Steyr's test track in Austria. Magna is a contract manufacturer, building the likes of the Mercedes G-Wagen, BMW Z4 and 5 Series, as well as the Toyota Supra. Around the company's small testing facility, the car's soft-sprung nature surprisingly didn't give way to any sensation of the heavy batteries it was carrying around. The steering was very nicely sprung and communicative as well, especially for an electric vehicle. Overall, it was surprisingly capable, extremely neutral, and rode very nicely. I can't imagine any pothole or other impact being a harsh one in the Ocean."

— Peter Holderith, The Drive