author: FutureCar Staff
The Fisker Ocean is slated to enter production in November at Magna Steyr’s factory in Austria.
California electric vehicle startup Fisker Inc will begin production of the highly-anticipated Fisker Ocean electric SUV in November, with the first customer deliveries taking place shortly after.
The Ocean SUV will come in three trim options, Sport, Ultra and Extreme. Fisker is launching the SUV with a version called the “One”, which is limited to just the first 5,000 vehicles produced. The One will be offered in the Extreme trim, which adds a “Hyper Range” battery pack, dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup and 22-inch wheels.
The Fisker Ocean One will offer an EPA estimated range of 350 miles with a 0 to 60 mph acceleration time of 3.6 seconds from its up to 550 horsepower electric powertrain.
More importantly, all versions of the Ocean will come with Fisker’s advanced driver assist system (ADAS) the company calls “Fisker Intelligent Pilot”. The package includes 360-degree surround view, Evasive Steering Assist, Integrated Drive Assist, which includes features such as Traffic Jam Assist, Adaptive Drive Control, Lane Centering Control and automated parking.
Fisker says it provides a “cocoon of safety” around the vehicle for highway and city driving, as well as in bad weather.
The EV startup sees in its future higher levels of autonomous driving capabilities, but for now, Fisker’s Intelligent Pilot is designed as a level-2 system. So let’s take a closer look at some primary features of Intelligent Pilot.
In total, Fisker Intelligent Pilot includes a comprehensive suite of advanced safety technology. It integrates, digitals cameras with 8MP resolution, digital radar, ultrasonic sensors and a driver monitoring camera.
Intelligent Drive expands the ability of the driver to see their entire surroundings and can react to control the vehicle to avoid a collision. It can evasively control the steering and braking for greater safety and comfort in stop and go traffic. However these evasive steering and braking features are only available for the Extreme trim and One versions of the Ocean.
The lower trims offer Lane Keep Assist technology and “Intelligent Speed Assist” instead of evasive steering and braking maneuvers. Lane Keep Assist provides gentle steering inputs to keep the vehicle in the center of a highway lane, while Intelligent Speed Assist helps a driver maintain a safe speed by reading speed limit signs and warning the driver if they are going too fast.
The Extreme and One Ocean models will offer Traffic Jam Assist, which works in traffic below speeds of 40 mph by automatically controlling the Ocean’s speed and following the vehicle in front at a safe distance.
Smart Traction
Fisker’s Smart Traction performance feature will be standard on the Extreme and Ultra trims of the Ocean. Fisker says its allows the Ocean to handle more like a sports car than an SUV.
It includes an all-wheel-drive torque vectoring system that provides the optimum amount of traction to the wheels for handling sharp curves. Smart Traction also improves handling and stability in wet and icy conditions. Fikser also says its minimizes energy loss and boosts efficiency of the EV.
Fisker’s “Digital Radar” System
The Ocean SUV will be the first vehicle to offer digital radar. It includes five digital radar sensors, one at each corner of the vehicle as well as a forward-facing unit. The suite of radars provide complete 360-degree coverage around the Ocean.
The digital radar can detect other vehicles up to 200 meters away and pedestrians up to 80 meters away. The high resolution radar delivers a high level of detail and can identify smaller objects more quickly and precisely, according to Fisker.
The digital radar can also see in darkness, such as when entering a tunnel. It can also improve the detection of smaller objects next to larger ones, such as a motorcyclist driving next to a larger truck. It also provides better detection of low lying objects, such as debris in the roadway.
Fisker says the digital radar is better at sensing objects approaching from the left or right sides of the Ocean.
The digital radar is further supplemented by ultrasonic sensors arrays on the front and rear bumper of the Ocean are used for sensing close proximity objects and are useful when parking and maneuvering around other vehicles and garage walls when parking.
The Ocean’s Digital Cameras
The camera suite of the Ocean includes one front view camera module and four surround view cameras which provide complete 360-degree coverage around the vehicle. Fisker says the five cameras will offer powerful object detection capability.
The images from the four cameras at the corner of the vehicle are processed and seamlessly stitched together in a single bird’s eye view from overhead, the sides, and/or 2D rear view. The cameras help a driver to see entirely around the vehicle with no blind spots.
The driver monitoring camera is mounted in the a-pillar on the driver side. It monitors the driver for drowsiness and alertness to make sure they are paying attention to the road ahead.
The higher trim Fisker Oceans will also come with Lane Change Assist, which checks for other nearby vehicles before performing a lane change automatically when a driver operates the left or right turn signals.
Fisker is also offering an optional automated parking feature that can automatically parallel park the Ocean next to a curb, or maneuver into an angled parking spot. It will also automatically scan for an open space with a feature called “Park My Car”.
It’s important to note that these driver assist features do not make the Fisker Ocean capable of autonomous driving. Intelligent Pilot is classified as a SAE level-2 system, which requires that a driver is always paying attention to the road at all times.
The Fisker Ocean is being built by contract manufacturer Magna Steyr in Austria, which has also built vehicles for Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Jaguar. Production is scheduled to begin on Nov 17, 2022.
The batteries for the Ocean are being supplied by China’s CATL, which is one of the biggest suppliers of batteries to the global auto industry. The Hyper Range battery pack includes nickel magnesium cobalt (NMC) cell chemistry. The Sport trim will come with Lithium ion phosphate (LiP) battery cells.
Fisker has been collaborating with CATL since 2020 on the batteries for the Ocean, which are optimized for crashworthiness and high energy density.
Fisker’s second vehicle will be built in Ohio at the newly acquired Foxconn factory, which was once a General Motors assembly plant. Development of the EV is being dubbed “PEAR”, which stands for “Personal Electric Automotive Revolution”.
Foxconn is best known as Apple Inc’s manufacturing partner and has assembled hundreds of millions of iPhones in China for the technology giant. But Foxconn is looking to diversify its electronics assembly business, including building electric vehicles, which are becoming more like “smartphones on wheels”.
The Fisker PEAR will enter production in 2024. Both the Fisker and Foxconn teams are fully engaged and expect to build a minimum of 250,000 Fisker PEAR units a year at the plant after a ramp up period.
Fisker says its collaboration with Foxconn in Ohio is poised to “revolutionize the traditional automotive business model” by introducing Foxconn’s efficient manufacturing capabilities to electric vehicle production at scale.
The efficient manufacturing can help EV startups like Fisker design and produce a new electric vehicle in as little as two years, which is unpreceded in the auto industry.
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