Production of the new Fisker Ocean has started on schedule at the Magna factory in Graz, Austria. Boss Henrik Fisker, who had told investors and deposit holders that November would see the start of production, was on site to witness the first Ocean come down the line at the newly commissioned carbon-neutral facility. 

It’s understood that early production models will be used for homologation purposes in both Europe and the US with customer cars scheduled for build at a later date. The brand has yet to issue official WLTP range figures.

Fisker has more than 63,000 reservations on its books, although the figure for buyers who choose to convert their reservations into orders will be lower. To date, only buyers of the £59,900 Ocean ONE special edition have been invited to place firm orders. According to Fisker, all 5,000 units found customers within 30 days. 

However, while the start of production marks an important milestone for Fisker and its investors, the brand has confirmed somewhat modest production targets for the initial phase of assembly. According to Fisker’s projections, just 300 units will be built by the end of March 2023. A significant production increase is expected for Q2 and Q3 with all 5,000 examples of the Ocean One expected to be built before the end of the year.  

Fisker is likely to start series production of higher spec models once all the launch models have shipped, which means that buyers of the all-wheel drive Extreme (£59,900) and Ultra £48,900 models will be the first to receive their cars either at the end of 2023 or early 2024. Buyers of the entry-level Sport model, which comes with front-wheel drive, an LFP battery and a £34,990 price tag are expected to see deliveries start in early 2024.  

According to Fisker, all 5,000 launch special ONE models found customers within 30 days

Although buyers of the Ocean ONE will be the first to receive their cars, Fisker has confirmed that a number of features will be missing. Early models will not be equipped with automatic high beam headlights, blind-spot monitoring, and lane-keep assistance. Cruise control will also be missing from early build cars. Boss Henrik Fisker has assured buyers that all missing elements will be added via over-the-air software updates, but admitted that some features, including traffic jam assist, may not arrive until the end of next year. 

According to Fisker, the brand made the decision to start production rather than wait for the features to be coded into the car. Speaking to US channel Autonews, Fisker said: There's also, quite frankly, a lot of customers that may not care about it, so why wait to launch the vehicle? And you know you're going to maybe get it three months, six months, nine months later."

Fisker plans to ramp production to 50,000 units by the end of next year and hoped to increase that number to 150,000 from 2024. 

Fisker is likely to start series production of higher spec models once all the launch models have shipped, which means that buyers of the all-wheel drive Extreme (£59,900) and Ultra £48,900 models will be the first to receive their cars