Welcome to Fisker
my life with a bankrupt car
I’m Chris. And this is my Fisker Ocean One. One of the craziest purchases I’ve ever made. Ill planned, poorly researched and just plain dumb, it turned into a love affair with power, luxury, comfort and Spotify. The car had no history. No warranty. And no company. What could go wrong?
Background
The story begins with Henrik Fisker, the designer credited with iconic cars like the BMW Z8, Aston Martin’s DB9 and V8 Vantage. Oh yeah, he also created the initial design on a little unknown car named the Tesla Model S. Tesla actually sued Fisker in 2009, saying Fisker spent too much time designing his own car and used Tesla design ideas on the Fisker Karma. Tesla lost the lawsuit, leaving Tesla to pay Fisker $1.1m.
In 2010, the Karma Fisker PHEV was released to the world with a base price of $102,000. It boasts 50-mile electric only range, 300-mile total range, and 400hp. Two years later, after producing about 2,400 cars, the company closed its doors due to lagging sales, it’s battery provider declaring bankruptcy and unable to deliver, and a loss of 300 cars due to Hurricane Sandy flooding a holding lot in New Jersey.
Part Duex
At some point, Henrik Fisker begins to create his next car, the Fisker Ocean. The car you’re sitting in. He planned for the car to have 450+ hp, 350+ miles of all-electric range, and a sustainable interior. He debuts the car at the 2020 CES show in Las Vegas. Production begins in 2022 with the custom car house, Magna Steyr, based in Austria. Magna is a contract car builder for high quality, low-volume cars, such as the Mercedes G-Wagon, Aston Martin Rapide, BMW Z4, and the Jaguar I-PACE/E-PACE.
Production continues and the Fisker Ocean is built to spec, meeting the 360-mile range, 468-hp, and a gorgeous, luxurious, sustainable material interior, as promised. Delivery to customers begins November 2023. Initial reviews are, “Great car, lousy software.” Reports start emerging about Bluetooth not connecting, keys failing to lock/unlock doors, and the plastic in the exterior door handles cracking. These are addressed in OTA updates, but the damage is done. Orders begin canceling,
In January NHTSA issues its first of three recalls: exterior door handles sticking and not opening. This is followed by February’s recall, NHTSA issues its recall on the water pump failing. This was a production issue where the pump for battery coolant would leak, short itself out, resulting in a battery overheating shutdown of power. This led a massive scare in the community. In March, a third recall is issued on the regenerative brakes “skipping” when the car slows down, AND hits a bump.
Then the nail in the coffin: social media influencers and YouTubers begin pouring out videos on a weekly, almost daily basis, regurgitating the same mantra: “I can’t connect my phone” and “This car is quirky.” Led by the infamous, “Worse Car Ever Reviewed” video, with over 5 million views, these influencers “musk” have had some help, as they skip over the mechanics of the car, and focus on the software issues. Ironically, they often talk about how cool the design is, the range of the car, the power of the car, and how comfortable the car is. But nobody listens to that.
From there, orders cancel. Cash reserves shrink. By March 2024, the company is in trouble with close to $500 million in debt, Fisker states they can’t pay bills, and production may cease to allow sales to fund production. This fails, and 3 moths later, in June of 2024, Fisker Inc. files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Done. Finito. No more!
But then, a savior emerges!
Fisker automotive
Our philosophy
our mission
Create the world’s most emotional and sustainable vehicles
- Recycled materials that can be re-used after automotive life
- Cost effective production techniques to produce cars with twice the performance for half the cost
- Uncompromising luxury that is sustainable and obtainable
our vision
- Produce cars through a legacy production partner to insure top quality standards are adhered to
- Introduce market changing practices of sustainability that will have a lasting impact for generations to come
- Strive to continually redefine what it means to be an automotive company
our values
- Luxury and performance on par with the worlds finest cars
- Development of long range driving technology to deliver the best all-electric experience and remove range anxiety
- Build a car based on a rich heritage of designing the finest high performance luxury automobiles in the world
By the numbers: This is why I bought my fisker
base horsepower
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0-60 mph
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miles range (20" wheels)
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my cost of the car
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my story
Buying the Fisker Ocean One in 2024, after the company was out of business, and with no service in sight, was one of the smartest things I’ve ever done! In short, I was leasing a Polestar 2, a smallish Volvo-based EV, and its lease was expiring in November 2024. In 2023, I started researching EV’s that were coming to market. I read about the Ocean. I saw the photos. And on the website, I watched the promo video of the Solar Orange Ocean driving along a sandy trail towards the beach, and fell in love.
Originally, I planned to purchase the lower version of the car to keep inline with a $50k price tag. The Ocean One and Extreme was priced at $69k. The second level was the Ultra at $50k. They were even planning a Sport model that had small $38k price tag, but also, an equally small range of 250-miles. After test driving one in December of 2023, I thought, nice size, great power, but for $70k?
By February of 2024, news of the company being in trouble starting coming out at a weekly, and then almost daily basis. In March, news of the brake recall came out. Then the infamous, “Worse Car Ever Reviewed” video drops. The stock goes into a free fall, orders cancel, and the Fisker Ocean is done.
But in July, news comes out that American Leasing, a New York based ride share management company, bought about 3,800 cars for $15,000 each, as part of the bankruptcy settlement.
I thought, if I could get a Fisker for $15k, hell, even $25k, it would be worth the issues. In September 2024, I come across Newport Fisker, with about 200 Fisker cars. I drove down. Drove the car. And drove to the bank. I got my Fisker Ocean One, affectionately known as FOO, for the advertised price of $24,999. Out the door for $28k and change. One of the craziest purchases I’ve ever made!
The car has been amazing. A dream to drive and pretty much trouble free. No service calls needed. I had to replace the door handle inserts on the passenger side, from Uber passengers constantly pressing into the plastic. But this was an original issue from the factory using the wrong light weight plastic.
We have driven the car almost 20k miles in the first 12 months, driving Palm Springs to San Francisco once, several trips to Las Vegas, and monthly trips to Los Angeles. And that’s what I wanted: a car that can go PS to LA, round trip on a single charge and PS to LV on a single charge. And it does so handily, each time, returning home with 40-60 miles range remaining.
And since I can drive so far, that means I’m charging entirely at home, so energy (fuel) costs are a minimum. It costs about $13 to add 250 miles of range to the car, charging from 20% to 80% overnight.
Fisker Back History
The Ocean is Henrik Fisker’s second go round in building a car under his name. In 2009, he developed the plans for a low-slung sport coupe named Karma. The Fisker Karma was produced with only 322hp from two electric motors driving the wheel. A small 2.0L turbo engine was used to charge the battery, giving it a range of about 230 miles. Hardly stellar numbers for a car costing over $100,000, equivalent to about $160,000 in 2025.
The car began deliveries in 2010.
Unfortunately, Fisker was hit with the automotive triple threat: Slow sales, supplier bankruptcy, and mother nature. Car sales were sluggish, in January 2012, the battery supplier, A123, was forced into bankruptcy after battery recalls. And finally, in October 2012, Hurricane Sandy wiped out almost 350 cars in storage. That was the nail in the coffin and Fisker closed doors in November 2012 after building just over 2,400 cars.
But fear not, if you like the Karma, you can still buy used ones for $25-40k. Or better yet, buy the new updated version of the Fisker Karma, the Karma Revero, from Wanxiang’s Karma Automotive, the rebranded successor to Fisker. Now with over 536hp, 360 miles of range and a respectable 0-60 in 4.5 seconds, and a cost of $125k. And it even stills retains Fisker’s original design ethos, as well as that Tesla S front end.
