Scott Fitzgerald once wrote there were no second acts in American lives. Nobody told Henrik Fisker. The Danish-born, Los Angeles–based car designer turned entrepreneur is now on his third attempt at building cars with his family name on the hood. In his early favor, our drive of a prototype of the electric-powered Fisker Ocean SUV, which should hit streets sometime in late 2023, suggests he might finally have a winner.
At first acquaintance, the Ocean is a cool, classy, competent take on what is quickly becoming the planet’s hottest vehicle segment: the midsize electric-powered SUV. More important, though, behind this new Fisker EV is a manufacturing infrastructure with a proven track record in building everything from sports cars to sedans to luxury off-roaders in high volumes and to high quality standards.
Every EV startup, even those well-funded and staffed with talented executives, has discovered that designing and engineering a groundbreaking new EV is, relatively speaking, the easy bit. Building them is a whole different ball game. “It’s maybe 100 times harder to design the manufacturing system than the car itself,” Tesla boss Elon Musk has acknowledged as Tesla struggles to improve
