Fisker shared today that reservations for the Fisker Ocean SUV, expected to begin production in the second quarter of 2022, hit 7,062.
“Registered interest” numbers hit 30,277.
The straight-up bad news is that the numbers are tiny compared to Tesla’s CyberTruck, which had officially confirmed reservations of 250,000 just days after unveiling, and was booking additional pre-orders at a phenomenal rate of 5,873/day even months later. According to a fan site which keeps track of registration numbers, Cybertruck pre-orders are now well over 713,000. But it’s not exactly a fair comparison: Fisker isn’t Tesla at this point, doesn’t have a celebrity CEO who has multiple successful companies in groundbreaking fields, and does not yet have a successful track record of shipping high-quality electric vehicles.
So all told, that’s not too bad.
“We had aimed to have 5,000 reservations by the end of July, so it is really encouraging to see this level of global interest in the Fisker Ocean,” CEO Henrik Fisker said in a statement. “Not only have we seen an acceleration in the rate of reservations but also a continued rise in the number of people registering with us for more information.”
The Ocean SUV will be the world’s most sustainable car, according to Fisker, with a “vegan interior and recycled materials throughout.” It’ll have a 250–300 mile range, and perhaps most interestingly, a very flexible, low-downpayment lease. It’s also an electric SUV that, while it has amazing looks (yes, subjective) also is recognizable as a conventional vehicle.
In other words, it doesn’t have the Cybertruck’s sci-fi zombie apocalypse chic.
While Fisker won’t ship a vehicle until 2022, it has big plans.
The company is “planning a portfolio expansion to a four-vehicle range by 2025,” with a sports sedan, a sports crossover, and a pickup truck. Fisker plans to achieve this by using platforms and components from other car manufacturers and automotive supplies. That will limit the company’s flexibility in creating clean-sheet super-innovative vehicles, but it should also significantly speed Fisker’s time to market, while also burning far less research and development cash.
In addition, the Ocean SUV will come in a special extreme off-road package, the Force-E model. It’ll be lifted, have an undercarriage scuff plate, roof rack, tow hooks, and power outlets for tools.
I forecast and analyze trends affecting the mobile ecosystem. I’ve been a journalist, analyst, and corporate executive, and have chronicled the rise of the mobile
I forecast and analyze trends affecting the mobile ecosystem. I’ve been a journalist, analyst, and corporate executive, and have chronicled the rise of the mobile economy. I built the VB Insight research team at VentureBeat and managed teams creating software for partners like Intel and Disney. In addition, I’ve led technical teams, built social sites and mobile apps, and consulted on mobile, social, and IoT. In 2014, I was named to Folio’s top 100 of the media industry’s “most innovative entrepreneurs and market shaker-uppers.” I live in Vancouver, Canada with my family, where I coach baseball and hockey, though not at the same time.