Orphaned Oceans: The Rideshare Fiskers of NYC

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

I was walking down the street in Queens last week and saw something that I thought I would never see again: A brand new Fisker Ocean. Paper rear plate, no inspection or registration sticker ever attached, fresh from inventory.

This isn’t the first Ocean that I have seen on the road. Earlier in the year, an Uber driver saw me staring at his new car and yelled out the window in a friendly tone, “nice, right?” I gave him a thumbs up.

I also had friends visit who were not used to the amount of walking that we take for granted here. They ordered an Uber, and a Fisker Ocean pulled up. When we hopped in, we were all impressed by the massive screen and the quality of the materials. The upright cabin and flat floor created a spacious rear seat that easily accommodated three adults. The ride was surprisingly comfortable on our potholed streets, despite the massive alloys (which I have a feeling will be replaced by steel wheels with larger sidewalls soon).

The electric vehicle gets its name from designer Henrik Fisker, who rose to fame with cars like the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9, and several performance vehicles for Ford. He also contributed to the design of the Model S for Tesla.

The Ocean was built under contract with Magna Steyr in Austria. The same company manufactures the Toyota Supra, BMW Z4, Mercedes G-Class, and a long history of other vehicles.

The Ocean won design awards for Best Electric SUV. It received positive reviews and mixed reviews. But Fisker ran out of money. It turns out that in the battle of “Car Guys vs. Bean Counters,” sometimes the “car guys” could use a little “bean counter” help. The Fisker Ocean was officially delivered for the first time on May 5, 2023, and production ended in March 2024, when funding ran out. Less than 12,000 were produced. The car was officially sold for a matter of months.

In bankruptcy liquidation, American Lease & Management, LLC went on to buy the remaining inventory of approximately 3,200 vehicles. This NYC-based company leases vehicles to car service drivers and has a partnership with Uber. A driver can lease a Fisker Ocean for $280/month, a relative bargain compared to a Highlander at $400 to $525 per month. Not only would fuel costs be lower, but the Ocean feels like a much better vehicle.

What Does the Future Hold for the Orphaned Oceans?

When we were riding in the Uber, I started a conversation with our driver. He said it was the best car he had driven and preferred it to a Model Y. It was smooth, quiet, and comfortable. Passengers seemed to universally love it.

How that holds up remains to be seen. With no new vehicle production and NYC roads putting a lot of wear and tear on vehicles, it will be a great test of durability. Does the Ocean have parts interchangeability with other vehicles? Or will the remaining vehicles keep being cannibalized until there is nothing left. We went through something similar in NYC with the Checker Marathon after that company also went bankrupt almost two decades before the last of those classic taxis left regular service.

However, our driver brought up another possibility. He thought that with the amount of exposure and positive response that he was seeing from passengers and other drivers, maybe somebody would bring it back. Does the tooling still exist? Could somebody walk into Magna Steyr with some fresh capital and technology to produce an updated version? At this point, it should be noted that this isn’t Henrik Fisker’s first bankrupt automaker. The previous company that made the Fisker Karma went on to be resurrected as Karma Automotive. Personally, I think the Ocean is dead and the industry is moving too fast now to catch up by bringing back an aging design. However, stranger things have happened, and it wouldn’t surprise me if somebody decided to give it a shot.