2023
Automatic
Tax: £0
Mileage: 5,298
Electric
We are indeed in a very different automotive era. Take this car, the Fisker Ocean, an upper mid-sized electric crossover created by a Californian start-up company that not only has no dealers but doesn't build cars either. Instead, as industry giant Apple will with its first car, the brand gets others to do that for it. In this case, the chosen factory partner is Magna Steyr in Austria (who regular build cars for Mercedes and BMW). For Fisker's next model, the Pear, it'll be Foxconn, who make many of the world's iPhones. Fisker buys in all its drivetrains and batteries too, with much shorter development lead times than established makers work to, so buyers get more up-to-date tech. All of which leaves the US company free to concentrate on design, something that, being led by gifted stylist Henrik Fisker (who has the BMW Z8 and the Aston Martin DB9 on his CV), it's well qualified to do. Fisker tried - and failed - to start his own car company a decade ago with the ill-fated Fisker Karma, but the Ocean looks a much better effort, billed as 'the world's most sustainable electric car'. It offers better value, more driving range and more technology than all its main rivals. Who really need to take this car very seriously indeed.
Almost anyone, it seems, can start a car company these days, but not anyone can make it work as Fisker has here. The Ocean is an astonishingly good first effort from this Californian start-up brand, priced at a level to embarrass its more established competitors. It's an upper mid-sized luxury EV crossover for the price of an unremarkably-equipped compact one. It's styled aggressively too and offers driving range figures that might redefine your expectations on how far a car like this can go between charges. Of course, there's the unknown quantity in buying or leasing from a fledgling brand. But we'd be inclined to take a risk on a Fisker. This one's that good.
Borrow £6,000 with £1,000 deposit over 48 months with a representative APR of 18.1%, monthly payment would be £172.36, with a total cost of credit of £2,273.28 and a total amount payable of £9,273.28.
