Fisker recently announced that it was negotiating with Volkswagen, an agreement whereby the US company could use the German group’s MEB electric modular platform in its new electric SUV, the Ocean. This architecture has already been offered to other companies such as Ford, which will use it in two electric cars for the European market.
The original Fisker Ocean prototype was built at the time by Italdesign, belonging to the Volkswagen Group, to verify to what extent a startup like Fisker’s design could differentiate when it comes an electric model based on the MEB platform. A platform that, as many of you will recall, will be used in the Volkswagen ID.3 and ID.4, among others.
Volkswagen and Fisker have not yet reached a definitive agreement to bring the Ocean into production. However, it seems clear that without the German brand’s support, it will be impossible to launch the SUV on the market since it has been designed from the beginning using technical solutions from the Volkswagen Group.
According to the latest reports, Fisker has outsourced the technical development of the Ocean and will also do the same with its production: the firm is currently negotiating with Magna Steyr the possibility of manufacturing the new model at its plant in Graz, Austria. Magna already produces models such as the Jaguar I-Pace.
Although a final agreement has not yet been reached, as Fisker continues to evaluate other possible partners, if the project finally goes ahead Magna will begin to produce the Ocean in the fourth quarter of 2022 (although by the end of 2021 Fisker will manufacture between 50 and 100 pre-production units to finalize the development of the car).
All these plans will largely depend on whether the agreement with Volkswagen comes to fruition. Although both signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2017 and a collaboration agreement in December 2018, the final decision has not yet been made. Still, the final deal will most likely be announced in a few weeks.