Fisker reveals all-electric Alaska pickup, 3 different EV prototypes
Fisker, the automotive startup-turned publicly traded firm based by famed automotive designer Henrik Fisker, revealed Thursday evening a dizzying array of EV prototypes from a beefy pickup truck with an expandable mattress, and grand tourer sports activities automobile with as much as 600 miles of vary to a souped-up, off-road model of its Ocean SUV and the mysterious PEAR car that it plans to construct with Foxconn.
The showcase, which was a part of an occasion in Huntington Seashore, California for buyers and media, was the primary time that Fisker has proven off all of its future autos in prototype kind and laid out its expansive and bold future product plan. And Fisker is taking reservations for all of them.
“I feel the normal automobile trade actually preferred this concept about arising with a brand new automobile yearly or each second yr, however I feel we’re in a very totally different time proper now. You already know, popping out of the COVID hangover,” Henrik Fisker informed TechCrunch. “My technique is, I type of need to seize the second. And somewhat than COVID as one thing that’s gonna cease us or gradual us down. I type of need to speed up. And the reason being that I imagine that your entire pie of the market is up for grabs, in all probability within the subsequent three years.”
Whereas the EVs proven Thursday are solely prototypes and the specifics are scarce, the corporate did share some new particulars that present a clearer image of what street — or roads — Fisker is taking.
Luxurious pickup truck: Fisker Alaska
Picture Credit: Abigail Bassett
CEO Henrik Fisker has known as the pickup the “Ferrari of pickups,” concentrating on different profitable all-electric luxurious pickups within the house, together with Rivian’s extremely fashionable Rivian R1T, the still-vaporware Tesla Cybertruck and the Ford F-150 Lightning.
The Alaska is constructed on an analogous platform because the Ocean, nevertheless it’s been stretched barely. Fisker calls the platform below the Alaska, the FT31. The corporate mentioned the EV pickup shall be constructed by automotive contract producer Magna Steyr in Europe on the identical plant because the Ocean.
Fisker mentioned Thursday that the Alaska will stand up to 340 miles of all-electric vary together with some distinctive options, together with a “massive gulp” cupholder and water bottle, an extendable mattress that goes from a 4.5 ft to 7.5 ft with the push of a button, and varied cubbies and storage bins, together with one for a cowboy hat.
The extendable mattress has an attention-grabbing function that is perhaps enticing to campers. The again window of the cab and rear wall will be dropped, permitting the cabin to speak in confidence to the truck mattress and lengthening your entire space (when the tailgate is down) to 9 ft, 6 inches. This function, which Fisker calls the Houdini Trunk, would supply a type of sleeping platform for homeowners or could possibly be used to hold longer objects.
Picture Credit: Abigail Bassett
Henrik Fisker famous in an interview with TechCrunch that the corporate is contemplating including “all types of enjoyable stuff” for the Alaska truck to go head-to-head with the Rivian R1T, a pickup recognized for its considerate equipment just like the hidden flashlight, Bluetooth speaker and since discontinued camp kitchen.
Fisker mentioned that the Alaska will come to market in 2024 and have a beginning value of $45,400 earlier than incentives. With incentives, Fisker says that the Alaska will price $37,900. Reservations for the Fisker Alaska opened this night with deliveries happening someday in 2025, based on the corporate.
The PEAR
Picture Credit: Abigail Bassett
Alongside the Alaska, Fisker confirmed off the PEAR for the primary time.
The PEAR, which stands for Private Electrical Automotive Revolution, was going to be constructed at the side of Foxconn on the Lordstown Motors plant in Ohio. Lordstown Motors has since filed for chapter and sued towards Foxconn. It’s unclear if the PEAR will nonetheless be constructed at that location.
Fisker says that the $29,900 (earlier than incentives) PEAR will get as much as 300 miles of vary in its twin motor, all-wheel drive kind and calls the car a “absolutely linked mobility machine” full with on-board supercomputers that reportedly deal with as a lot as 6.2 teraflops of knowledge. The supercomputers have been constructed in-house by Fisker and are known as Fiskerblades.
The vary for the Pear is roughly 50 miles lower than different high-volume EVs just like the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 6, each of that are priced within the $40,000 vary, however no automaker has but been capable of construct and supply an EV for below $30,000.
To maintain the worth of the PEAR low, Fisker goes for the amount play, noting that when the Lordstown plant ramps up manufacturing, the corporate plans to construct 250,000 PEARs per yr at that location. At tonight’s occasion, Henrik Fisker mentioned that he ultimately hopes to construct 1 million Pears per yr at factories all over the world, together with these within the U.S., China, Europe and India.
The Pear is constructed on what Fisker calls the SLV1, or Easy Gentle Quantity platform, and can have an all-steel physique and body. The corporate mentioned it has used an inside growth course of to make manufacturing extra environment friendly and decrease prices. As an illustration, lots of the components contained in the smaller EV crossover are interchangeable and the armrests on the doorways are precisely the identical.
Fisker mentioned it was capable of take out 35% of the components with a view to decrease price and make it simpler and quicker to assemble.
Henrik Fisker confirmed that the Pear is completed by way of design and the corporate is presently going out to suppliers to get it constructed. Fisker mentioned that the Pear shall be coming in mid-2025.
One distinctive function of the Pear is the rear tailgate which neither opens up or down like conventional tailgates. As a substitute, it slides down into the rear bumper and disappears. The corporate additionally refers to this because the “Houdini Trunk,” the identical title it makes use of for a considerably comparable disappearing act within the pickup.
The Pear additionally comes with an possibility for a bench seat within the entrance, providing optionally available seating for 3 folks, somewhat than two, rising the compact passenger automobile capability to as many as six folks. The Pear additionally will get a lounge seating possibility, the place the entrance seats can lay again and folks can watch a film on the middle display screen (the 5-passenger model will get the identical 17-inch display screen because the Ocean) from the rear when charging.
Reservations for the “city EV,” which is in regards to the dimension of a Subaru Crosstrek, opened in February of final yr, The corporate says that they’ve greater than 70,000 reservations for the Ocean and the PEAR, mixed.
A sports activities convertible: Fisker Ronin
Picture Credit: Abigail Bassett
The all-electric Ronin, which was additionally proven in prototype kind, marks Henrik Fisker’s return to the high-end luxurious sports activities automobile market.
The car — named after the film Ronin that’s well-known for its a number of automobile chase scenes — is supposed to showcase Fisker’s imaginative and prescient of the longer term supercar and serves because the know-how “provider” for all the opposite autos within the lineup.
To the CEO, meaning a four-door, grand tourer with butterfly-winged doorways, a coupe-like sloping roofline and tri-motor powertrain that produces greater than 1,000 horsepower and may journey 0 to 60 miles per hour in round two seconds. The car shall be outfitted with a retractable carbon fiber roof that may slot in its trunk.
If that’s not wild sufficient, Fisker says it can nonetheless be spacious sufficient to suit as much as 5 folks and their baggage.
The Ronin shall be outfitted with a brand new kind of battery pack built-in into the physique of the grand tourer with a focused 600-mile vary, Fisker mentioned Thursday. If profitable, that will put the Ronin’s vary far forward of another EV available on the market.
Manufacturing begins within the second half of 2024, based on the corporate.
Luxurious off roader: Drive E
The large shock Thursday was the Drive E, an off-roader model of the Ocean SUV — its solely EV presently available on the market.
Picture Credit: Abigail Bassett
Fisker widened the Ocean SUV with fenders, added a skid plate and attention-grabbing 33-inch wheels. The corporate, which known as the Drive E a “hardcore off-road bundle,” shall be out there within the first quarter of 2024.
