My Fisker Ocean One is delivered. And delivers, it does!

Hip hip hooray! My Fisker was delivered today after a debacle with my Polestar. Ironically, just last night I was watching several videos, and came across a video by MTN Ranger explaining what happens when your battery dies. He was showing how to open the hood of the Fisker to access the 12V battery, and it suddenly dawned on me that these electric cars actually have a separate 12V battery powering the life support systems. Basically, the car computer that runs your air conditioning, your streaming services, the cameras on the car, these are all run on a separate 12 V system, and not the 220V system that powers the motors of the car. And in the Irony of Ironies, I went out to my Polestar yesterday to drive it back to Polestar Costa Mesa to turn in the lease, and then to Newport Fisker to pick up my new Ocean, and the Polestar wouldn't start up. The dash lights just kept flashing and eventually, they stopped flashing all together. So I called roadside service, and they said they would pick up the car and deliver to Polestar. I didn't see anything warning me on a 12 V battery, and then I suddenly remembered the video I watched the night before. Funny enough, the next day, the tow guy came out, said he knows this happens and it's usually the battery, so he popped the hood and he actually knew where the 12 V battery was located how to access it. He put the charger on and sure enough 10 minutes later the car started up. But since he was already there to tow the car back to Costa Mesa Polestar, I let him do so and emptied out the driveway to prepare for delivery of my new Fisker Ocean One.

8:30 AM Wednesday morning: My wife alerts me that somebody is out at the front of the house. I looked down at my phone and see that I've missed a call and that my camera has an image of a mysterious dark object in my driveway. Wait a second, I think to myself, is this it!?! Woohoo! I run out front, I mean, I cooly stroll out to the front and sure enough in my driveway is my new Fisker Ocean One. Fuck yeah! I mean, hey that's cool. I signed the paperwork to receive the car, and snatch, I mean politely accept the keys from the transport driver. This Amazon delivery of a car business model of how people are receiving their cars seemed to work sometimes, but not all the time. But either way, at least I was able to pick my car off the lot at Newport Fisker. So I created my own excitement about the car and it's delivery. Now that the car is delivered, I stand in awe. Ahh!

Products such as cars should always be a work-in-progress, constantly seeking sustainbale innovation to improve environment footprint.

Henrik Fisker

The first thing that hits me is the size of the car. Funny, in my driveway now the car actually feels a little larger than before. And then the Palm Springs desert sun played its magic flute on the paint color of the car, Big Sur Blue, and all the little metal flakes in the paint spring to life. The car flickered in the morning sun and just looked absolutely amazing. I opened the door, and my first chance to sit in the car and again, the car felt so comfortable, so roomy and spacious. I couldn't believe the car was here. I was so excited. I had to take it for a quick spin, even though I was still working at the time. (don't tell my boss, whatever, I'm not working for them anymore) We'll just go down to the end of the block and call it a first test drive. So I pull out of the driveway and head towards the end of the block. The first thing that struck me was how smooth the road was under the car. Our street still has not been repaved and is full of cracks and potholes and asphalt ribs that are soon to be replaced. In the Polestar these were quite jarring, but in the Fisker Ocean, the street felt smooth. Hallelujah I thought. If nothing else, at least some of the jagged roads around Palm Springs were gonna have a much smoother ride now. I drove back to the house and backed into the driveway. I opened the rear hatch of the car and was happy to see the new wall charger was there. The car was delivered at 80%, which listed 268 miles and that was great. I'll get around to mounting and using the charger soon enough as I have plans for many drives in the car and home charging is key.

As I inspected the car, I begin noticing little details that I hadn't noticed before. The brake pedal and the threshold for the door both had waves engraved in the material. I guess were meant to replicate the ocean, the car's namesake. I open the door and also notice the stocks of the door handle also had the same little graphic representations there as well. Cute I thought, totally understated and unneeded, but cute. I began noticing more and more the interior and the vegan leather, the white vegan leather. When I test drove the car back in December, I think we have what's called the Feel Tek interior, which was a nylon based material that felt very plastic like. But then I started noticing the white Alcantara vegan leather interior, and it felt elegant and luxurious. The more I sat there the more I felt this is really nice! I began to feel even more happy with the decision to get the car. My wife picked out the Big Sur Blue matte finish on the exterior, and with this white interior, the car really came together.

I stepped out of the car and pressed the key fob for California mode, which opens all the windows and the sunroof of the car. Now I had this function on several cars before: Polestar does this, both BMW's did this as well as my Mercedes convertible almost a decade earlier. What's the big deal about the windows going down? But then I noticed the full effect of the windows going down: the two rear quarter windows go down, the tailgate window goes down, then the sunroof opens. "This is cool." I thought! I was looking at the sunroof and noticed that the sunroof, or the Solar Sky Roof, has a huge opening. So of course I had to stand inside the car and test it out. And yes, my theory was correct: I could actually stand up in the rear foot well and stand straight up out of the sunroof! This is huge. I headed back down to the front seat, feeling the morning sun warming me as it came through with no interference from a panoramic glass. That's when I also noticed it started to get a little hot, so I closed the roof. I will never understand why called auto manufacturers think that a panoramic glass roof is a good thing. Maybe in northern states where the ambient temperature is cooler and the sun's healing rays can be more appreciated. But here in Palm Springs, a panoramic glass roof generates an incredible amount of heat that can bump a car's interior to wel over 120 degrees before 9am. Good thing that the Solar Sky Roof has actual solar panels, little black squares that block 90% of the heat rays coming through. And yet, it still lets in enough light to feel open and airy.

I moved back to the driver's seat playing with some of the features on the center console. One of the fun things I discover were the toggle switches for the air conditioning, the fan and the volume. It's nice to have mechanical touch buttons that easily at your fingertips. I noticed my second favorite feature of having a clearly labeled navigation menu alongside the active screen, similar to a taskbar on a regular computer. Pressing on the little music symbol brought up the homepage for the media which had Spotify, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Bluetooth, and an actual radio. This was something that I liked in the Polestar that it actually had access to FM radio. We actually have a couple of really cool FM stations here in Palm Springs so I like having access to those. But I decided to try the Spotify, which I didn't use much to see how that worked, and up popped a QR code to login. I took my phone out took a picture of the QR code and my phone instantly connected my phone Spotify to the car. Wow! Like that, I have my Spotify up and running, and was able to listen to my playlists there, Simple Minds and Depeche Mode. Hmmm, looks like I'll be adding more.

I remember one reviewer saying that the sound system in the Fisker was only mediocre, by an unknown sound maker. It turns out its by ELS. Under the settings menu, the audio settings is called Sound Stage. And the upper right hand corner as a little header called ELS Studio 3D. Next to that as the familiar little circle with an "i". This means information is available, and clicking that little icon brought up a screen on ELS Studio 3D. It's a proprietary system designed by Grammy award-winning music producer Elliott Schneider. Wow this was interesting. I read the rest of the information there, just three quick paragraphs and then went back to the sound system. You can select areas of the car where the sound plays: All, Driver, Passenger, Front and Rear. This way you can isolate the music depending on your passenger requests. It also has a 3D surround sound setup, which I clicked on and promptly cranked up some Depeche Mode. It sounded fantastic. The vibration from the seats from the bass was so immersive, I was in heaven. At this point, I am just grinning ear to ear on the joy. This Fisker has already won me over, and I haven't even left the driveway yet!