[UPBEAT MUSIC]
BRIAN WONG: I'm Brian.
This is Edmunds.
And we are back yet again with another long-term intro video
because we just can't stop buying new electric vehicles.
This thing behind me is the latest member
to join our long-term fleet.
It is a 2024 Fisker Ocean Extreme.
And we're going to live with it for about a year and 20,000
miles to see just how it does.
A good place to start with any of our long-term vehicles
is, how much did it cost.
And in the case of our new Ocean Extreme,
the answer is quite a bit.
It came in at just under $70,000 on the sticker.
And that's a lot of scratch.
It's much more than we just paid for the Chevrolet Blazer EV
that we also recently added to our long-term fleet.
And we're going to talk about that vehicle a little bit more
later in this video.
It's worth mentioning that there are much cheaper versions
of the Ocean that are also available,
with a single-motor base model coming in at under $40,000.
And that vehicle is meant to go up
against things like the Tesla Model Y.
But we wanted to test out the Ocean with all
of the available features.
And this was also the one that we could
get our hands on the soonest.
So here we are.
One of the reasons that we're so excited to add
a Fisker to our fleet is that this vehicle, right now,
feels pretty incomplete.
It's missing some of the features
that we actually paid for.
And we're going to have it over the year
to see how long it takes for those things
to actually be added to our Ocean to make it feel
more of a complete vehicle.
So without further ado, let's get into it.
It wouldn't be an Edmunds video without testing numbers.
And we had another version of the Fisker
in at the end of last year.
So we were able to put it through the entire Edmunds
testing regimen.
That vehicle was a 2023 Fisker Ocean One,
one of the first 5,000 units of the Ocean,
but mechanically identical to the Extreme that we have here.
So the numbers between the two should be the same.
Now on our test track, it put up a 0-to-60 mile-an-hour time
of 4.1 seconds and a 12.4 second quarter mile as well.
And that's a result that we achieved using Boost Mode.
[RUMBLE]
LUIGI: Here we go!
What is Boost Mode, you might be asking.
And that is a great question.
Boost mode is a very neat party trick
that the Fisker Ocean has.
And it's the only way to access the vehicle's
full 564 horsepower.
So if you're in Fun or Hyper Mode with both motors going,
you get a maximum of 468 horsepower.
But this, you get the full beans, as they like to say.
Now the catch with the Boost, you only get 500 of them.
You get 500 of these very hard launches.
And that's it for the life of the vehicle.
So since we just bought this thing, that counter is at 500.
And I'm going to be the first one
to get to take it down to 499.
Now to set it up, all you do is, you put it in Hyper Mode here.
And you just hit Boost to on.
And that's pretty much it.
There's little instructions below it.
All you do is, you come to a complete stop
and then you fully press the accelerator pedal.
So here we go.
All right, 3, 2, 1.
[CLICK]
[WHIRRING]
[WHOOSH]
And that is 0 to 60 in 4.1 seconds.
And now our launch counter has gone down from 500 to 499.
Now the funny thing is, when we tested this vehicle,
we didn't actually get a really much better time in Boost Mode.
The time difference between Boost and just regular Hyper
was actually only a few hundredths of a second.
And that's because the only way to activate it
is to go full throttle right away.
And that gives you some wheel slip
as it sends all that power down.
So cool party trick.
But it doesn't actually make the vehicle much faster.
The one other funny question that we have is,
these long-term vehicles, they get driven by pretty much all
the Edmunds staff.
So since we only have 500 launches,
we're wondering who's going to take more
than their fair share.
And my money's on Kurt.
Kurt, what do they feed you?
[CHING]
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
As we know, for EVs, it's not just important
how fast they go, but also how far they can go.
So we also put the Ocean on the soon-to-be world-famous Edmunds
EV range test to see just how far that might be.
Now the Ocean, with the Hyper Range battery,
like it has here, 113 kilowatt hours,
has an EPA estimated 360 miles of range.
And in our test, it almost hit that, going 358 miles.
Now that's an impressive result for this vehicle
because it's testing on what's called the 5-cycle test.
And generally, in our testing, those vehicles
have really struggled to meet their EPA estimates.
But in the case of the Ocean, it seems to be pretty spot on.
And it's made even more impressive by the fact
that our test vehicle had 22-inch wheels, while the EPA
certified on 20-inch wheels.
And larger wheels are generally much less efficient.
But here, going to the bigger wheel
doesn't really hurt you all that much.
The other thing that it has, that helps, is a solar roof.
So on the top of the roof there, there's actually solar panels.
And those are always trickle charging the vehicle
and adding range back in.
Fisker estimates that in somewhat ideal conditions,
that roof can actually add about 1,500 miles of range per year.
So if you do a little bit of math,
that's about three miles a day.
[WRITING]
And that probably helped us on the day of the test
because it was pretty sunny that day as well.
Now that we've gotten testing numbers out
of the way, that leads us to another important number.
And that would be the Edmunds rating.
But before we get there, it's important to add
some context to the Fisker because we at Edmunds here,
we buy a lot of EVs from start-up companies.
Our fleet, right now, has a Rivian, a Lucid.
We've owned every Tesla except for the Roadster
and that giant metallic monstrosity
currently terrorizing your neighborhood.
So we have a lot of experience with these new vehicles
from these new companies that don't quite feel complete
when you get them.
A lot of them feel like they're in beta.
Now buying a vehicle from a non-startup
doesn't always mean great things.
We also recently bought a Chevrolet Blazer EV.
And that is going--
not so well.
But here in the Ocean, even by the standards of a startup,
it still feels pretty incomplete.
And that's in part because a lot of the features
that we're paying for, with that very high sticker price,
we don't even have yet on this vehicle.
A lot of them are promised by Fisker
to arrive sometime in 2024, some in early 2024.
But others, we're not quite sure when they're actually
going to appear.
So we're paying for things like adaptive cruise control, which
it doesn't have.
We're paying for things like voice commands, which it also
doesn't have.
And that's on top of some of the other usability
and drivability issues that we've
noticed with this vehicle.
[SOFT MUSIC]
Issues that started pretty much right away with our Ocean--
the first one happened while driving back to Los Angeles
after we picked the vehicle up, near San Diego, when
the automatic forward emergency braking and lane keeping assist
both shut off due to a front-camera fault.
Over the course of our first week with the Ocean,
we got more errors, mostly related
to the different safety systems.
And they affected things like the blind-spot monitors
and the backup camera as well.
Now most of these problems would be resolved
when the vehicle was restarted.
But it's still disconcerting not to know which of the safety
systems will be working each time you get behind the wheel.
We've also had some problems with the screen
and Bluetooth connectivity in the same time frame.
And when you add it all up, it just feels like--
it's a lot.
[CAR ALARM]
All those factors combine to give the Ocean
an Edmunds rating of just 7.4.
And that puts it at tied for--
dead last in its category.
[FUNKY MUSIC]
We spent some time talking about the things
that the Ocean doesn't have yet.
But it's time now to get into what the Ocean does have.
And that starts right here.
This 17.1-inch touchscreen is the beating heart
of the automobile.
Most of the things that you're going to be looking for,
in terms of the controls and how to interact with the Ocean,
all takes place right here, although one thing that's
different about the Ocean, compared to other vehicles that
have large screens like this, is that it retains
physical controls for some things,
like the climate control, for the volume.
And there are also some helpful wheel controls as well.
So we like having tactile buttons.
These are easier to use, a lot of times,
than having to go into the screen
to do all the climate controls.
That doesn't mean that everything is good, though.
This screen-- there's a touch of input lag with the navigation.
So this is powered by TomTom.
As you can see, it's not super responsive,
takes a little bit of time to figure things out.
And also, I noticed that the destinations aren't always
up to date.
So new restaurants and things like that aren't quite in here
yet.
TomTom is not as up to date as something like Google Maps
will be.
Speaking of Google Maps, no smartphone mirroring.
So there's not going to be Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.
Fisker says that they believe in what they have here,
in the native infotainment setup.
Hopefully, it's something that improves over time.
And it's something that we've definitely
seen improve in other vehicles as we've owned them.
They become a bit snappier.
Things get faster.
So hopefully, that's the case here.
One thing though, going back to the climate controls,
that I really don't like about the Ocean
is that for the air vents, you have to actually aim them
through the screen.
So they're integrated into the dash, here.
And if you want to change where the air is pointed,
you have to do it through the screen here.
And it's really hard to get a feel
for where the air is going.
But to me, a vent with a little thing that you can point,
that'll always be better for something like this.
[FAST-PACED MUSIC]
This interior and the whole of the Ocean
actually has a big focus on sustainability.
So Fisker says that 95% of this vehicle is recyclable.
And on the interior alone, there's
over a hundred pounds of recyclable materials.
So these seats, a lot of materials
here on the dashboard, those are all synthetic.
They do use real Alcantara because they
say that that's actually pretty environmentally friendly.
But again, just a heavy emphasis on recyclable materials.
It does make it feel a bit synthetic.
But it's not sterile at all.
And actually like this material here,
on the dashboard, quite a bit.
So this is a bit bigger than most
of the compact, electric SUVs that are out there.
So you get really good headroom and legroom,
especially in the second row.
So you can fit four adults in this vehicle very comfortably.
And one other thing that we've enjoyed about the Ocean
is the build quality.
So unlike many of the other EV startups who've
decided to figure out how to build the vehicle themselves,
Fisker has outsourced the manufacturing of the Ocean
to a company in Austria, at the same factory
where they actually build things like the Mercedes-Benz G-Wagon.
So from a build-quality standpoint,
this actually feels a lot better put together than our Lucid,
for an example, and even, I would
say, on par with our Rivian, a vehicle that we've
liked the build quality of.
Now I know this has all maybe felt a little bit
negative so far.
But there are definitely things about the ocean
that I do really like
[HIP-HOP MUSIC]
- Get into my car.
- Who, me?
BRIAN WONG: Of them is this instrument panel.
It shows you just enough information, not too much, not
too little.
It tells you everything you need to in a very
quick and easy-to-read format without being distracting.
Like that a lot.
I also like that Fisker has included
these quirky little things here, on the interior, one
of them being these taco trays.
So we live in California.
And out here, we do eat a lot of tacos.
I don't have a taco on me.
But I do have these Flamin' Hot Cheetos.
So there's one here for the driver and one
here for the passenger, as well so you can eat in the car
without causing as much of a mess.
This screen, also on the extreme trim, it will do this.
It can actually rotate while the vehicle is in park.
And that will allow you to watch YouTube videos, Disney+, Hulu,
any other streaming stuff.
Here on the Extreme, we're going to get
three years free of data.
So that's going to cover our ownership of the vehicle,
though Fisker says, after that, you're probably
going to have to pay for a data package of some kind.
But the piece de resistance for this vehicle
is California Mode.
And when you activate that--
[MAGICAL MUSIC]
--all the windows open.
And that would include this really big sky roof,
here, those quarter panel windows over
by the rear, and also the rear glass, kind of like a 4Runner.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
So how does the Fisker Ocean drive?
We've already established that it's pretty
quick in a straight line.
But quick doesn't always mean fun.
And in the case of the Ocean, that's definitely true.
That's not to say that this is a bad-handling vehicle.
It's just not a ton of fun from behind the wheel.
There's a pretty good amount of body roll.
I will say that on the street, it's quite comfortable.
The suspension is really well tuned.
It never feels too sloppy.
But it never also feels too firm,
kind of like Goldilocks in that way.
It's a vehicle that you can easily get behind the wheel of
and drive for a long way without being too uncomfortable.
I do wish that the seats were a little bit more supportive,
though.
I wish that there was some sort of extendable thigh support.
That would help a little bit.
But overall, I'd say it drives pretty nicely.
And if you want to have some fun,
that Boost Mode is a pretty good trick as well.
[DING]
LUIGI: Here we go!
BRIAN WONG: My least favorite part about the Ocean driving
experience, though, would have to be the brake pedal.
There's this weird kind of dead spot at the top of it
where you feel like you initially touch the brakes,
and then not a lot really happens, something
that I'm guessing that they're going
to get feedback on and dial back in along the way.
But for now, it does make it a bit difficult
to stop the Ocean smoothly because it
feels like you're hitting the brake and nothing's happening.
So you hit it a little harder.
And then all of a sudden, it grabs on you.
The regenerative braking-- there are three settings, low,
medium, and high.
And they all feel pretty well calibrated.
But for some reason, there is no one-pedal driving.
So that means that if you're in high regen,
as you're coming up to, let's say, a stop sign or a stop
light, the vehicle will slow itself.
And then when it gets down to about 5 miles an hour,
it just sort of lets go.
So you have to anticipate that and be
ready to be on the brakes.
It feels like the car is going to slow you down all the way.
And then you get to the last part and it's just like, eh,
you take care of it now.
So that's a bit annoying.
The other thing, too, is there's no auto hill hold.
So if the Ocean is on any kind of incline or decline,
and you put it in drive or you put it in reverse
and you take your foot off the brake,
it's just going to start rolling.
And the other feature that you're really
missing from the driving experience
is the adaptive cruise control.
So if you're on some kind of long trip,
it makes it more tiring.
So there's an update coming early 2024
that should add hill hold, that should add one-pedal driving.
And at some point, adaptive cruise control
will arrive as well.
So these are issues that can be fixed
and should be fixed by Fisker in the somewhat near future.
Now Fisker likes to call this a software-defined vehicle, which
means that through over-the-air updates,
they can basically change how everything in this vehicle
works.
And that's another thing that we're
going to keep an eye on for this year,
to see if those things improve and make
the Ocean better to live with.
[SOFT MUSIC]
Now, if I had to think of the Ocean in human terms,
I'd think about it like college Brian.
And if I were to give a human rating to college Brian,
it would be pretty low because that guy was a little bit
annoying.
He had some good ideas, but really, no idea
how to execute them.
And I probably wouldn't want to hang out with him for too long.
But I would like to think that over time, I've maybe
become a bit more mature, a bit more focused,
and hopefully my human rating has gone up since then.
And I think that will be the case with the Ocean.
As these teething pains get sorted out,
we're hoping that the solid build quality of the things
that we like about it will just be built upon.
And hopefully, that rating can drag it up out of the dredges
as well.
So stick with us as we stick with the Ocean for a year.
And hopefully, 12 months from now,
we're all rated a little bit higher.
Thanks for watching.
And now for the best, most satisfying part
of buying any new electronic.
I'm going to peel the plastic off.
Oh.
Oh, all right.
Nobody's allowed to touch this because it will never
be clean again.
[LAUGHS]