David Villeneuve and his Fisker Ocean. Villeneuve says its 'an amazing car.'Supplied
Speaking from behind the wheel of his new Fisker Ocean, a sleek electric SUV built by a California startup that filed for bankruptcy protection in June, David Villeneuve said his Fisker is the best car he’s ever owned.
“I’d probably buy it again,” said Villeneuve, who lives near Montreal. He fell in love with the car when it was unveiled in 2021, in part because of features like its solar-panel roof and its use of recycled materials. He finally took delivery of a dark blue Fisker Ocean Extreme on May 6 this year, roughly six weeks before Fisker Group Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware.
“We were super excited,” he remembered of receiving the Ocean. “Like, wow, it’s just an amazing car.”
More than 6,400 Fisker Ocean SUVs had been delivered as of April, but if – as seems increasingly likely – Fisker goes out of business and its assets are liquidated to pay off creditors, all those vehicles and their owners, including Villeneuve, could essentially be left out in the cold.
Fisker began delivering the Ocean SUV to Canadian customers at the end of 2023. The company hasn’t disclosed how many were sold here, but they’re a rare sight on the roads.
This isn’t the first EV startup co-founded by Henrik Fisker to run into financial trouble. His first car company, Fisker Automotive, delivered about 2,000 of the $100,000 Fisker Karma hybrid sedan before filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2013.
“I’m probably the only person in the world who has started a car company before and is doing it again,” Fisker said in a 2021 interview with The Globe and Mail. “There are so many basic mistakes we don’t have to do again.”
But, clearly, mistakes were made. There were issues related to customer service and vehicle reliability. Initial reviews found the Ocean had promise but felt unfinished, plagued by serious software glitches. A video titled “This is the Worst Car I’ve Ever Reviewed” by prominent tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee garnered 5.9 million views. Although the clickbait title of his video is harsh, the 20-minute review itself is more balanced, with Brownlee praising the car’s looks, comfortable seats, solar panel sunroof and other features before panning the software, which he said was due for an update.
The Ocean has 579 kilometres of range.Fisker Inc./Courtesy of manufacturer
The fear now is that if the company goes out of business entirely, things will only get worse for owners. One by one – owing to software glitches or parts that can’t be repaired or replaced – the fleet of Ocean SUVs will slowly become extinct unless there’s some unexpected intervention.
Villeneuve fears that something as simple as losing the one and only key fob the car came with could render his Fisker inoperable.
So far, however, Villeneuve’s been happy with his purchase. “Maybe we didn’t show it off as much as we might have if the company wasn’t in a bad situation … but, within the family, everybody was like, ‘Wow, your car is amazing,’” he said.
It’s been fairly reliable in his experience. Occasionally, he noticed the driver-assist systems don’t work when driving directly into morning sun (an issue that’s not uncommon on other vehicles). On one occasion, he got a call from his wife at 3 a.m. because a charging cable wouldn’t disconnect. It happened a second time, but on both occasions pulling the emergency release freed the cable.
On its website, Fisker still says the top-of-the-line Ocean Extreme offers, “Extreme luxury. Extreme performance. Extreme thrills,” and “an all-electric thrill ride.” It has 564 horsepower, an enormous sliding glass roof with integrated solar panels, dual-motor all-wheel drive and an impressive 579 kilometres of range.
The minimalistic interior and dash of the Fisker Ocean.Fisker Inc./Courtesy of manufacturer
By the time Villeneuve took delivery of his car in May, its software had already been upgraded to version 2.0. “[It] resolved pretty much all the bugs when the car came out,” he said.
In April, the company slashed prices on the Ocean Extreme in Canada to just under $50,000 from around $80,000. “I thought I’d never afford it, but then they dropped the price,” Villeneuve remembered. That’s when he took the plunge, but only after taking a test drive at the Montreal auto show. After tax and both the federal and Quebec provincial EV rebates, Villeneuve estimated he paid about $46,000.
“I actually used it as an opportunity,” he said. “For me, it was the chance to get a quality car for a decent price, and I’m willing to live with, you know, the consequences.”
He knew it was risky. “Of course, it is a gamble,” he said. “Where the risk was, and that’s where I had to convince my wife, was what happens if they go under and we have an issue. We could have a minor fender bender and, you know, break the windshield, and it’s an issue getting a replacement,” Villeneuve said.
In an e-mail, Fisker’s vice-president of communications, Matthew DeBord, declined to respond to questions about how many Fisker repair technicians are left in Canada, how owners can get replacement key fobs and whether there’s a plan to ensure customers can continue to drive their cars for years to come.
Fisker owners recently banded together, forming the independent Fisker Owners Association. It officially launched in June, and within a week had 1,500 membership requests, or roughly 20 per cent of all Fisker owners worldwide, according to the association’s co-founder, Cristian Fleming.
The association aims to ensure continued access to parts and service, to provide a platform for sharing information and to represent owners’ interests in discussions with Fisker Group Inc. and through bankruptcy proceedings.
“Look, we’ve got these cars. We’re not selling them at this point, because nobody wants them. So our only option is to make sure that we can [secure] some kind of a mechanism for keeping these things on the road and keeping them maintained and safe,” Fleming said.
When we spoke again in early August, Fleming said he felt increasingly confident about being able to keep these cars on the road.
He said the association now has more than 4,000 members and is in contact with the key-fob supplier, and some owners have successfully managed to get replacements. “We’ve also got very good lawyers and made sure we’re a clear presence in the bankruptcy process,” he added.
Fleming, who lives in New York, still loves his Fisker Ocean One, which was delivered in October, 2023.
“The software is a little buggy. I kind of expected that,” he said. “The thing I didn’t expect is that they’d just never finish it.”
Villeneuve fears something as simple as losing the one and only key fob the car came with could render his Fisker inoperable.Supplied