Lordstown-Bound Fisker Pear Surpasses 4,000 Reservations

LORDSTOWN, Ohio – Fisker Inc. announced Wednesday that it’s received more than 4,000 reservations for the Fisker Pear, the electric vehicle slated for production at Foxconn’s plant here in 2024.

The EV manufacturer, based in Manhattan Beach, Calif., said that the company continues to transition its engineering and purchasing team from its Ocean EV project to Pear, an acronym for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution.

“There’s a lot of innovation features in the Pear,” CEO Henrik Fisker told analysts and investors during a conference call Wednesday. “Something that you have never seen on any production car before. I’m super-excited about this vehicle.”

While the company has teased some initial renderings of the vehicle’s front, the Pear has yet to be unveiled to the public.  Still, “Pear reservations have now surpassed 4,000,” he said.

In May, Fisker Inc. confirmed plans to build the Pear at Lordstown after Taiwan-based tech giant Foxconn purchased Lordstown Motors Corp.’s 6.2 million-square-foot plant for $230 million.  The plant once served as General Motors’ small car assembly factory for more than 50 years before it shut down in 2019 and then sold it to EV startup Lordstown Motors. 

In March 2021, Foxconn and Fisker signed a contract manufacturing agreement in which Foxconn would produce the Pear at the Lordstown plant.  The Pear is to be built on a new platform developed by Fisker, the CEO said.

“That’s a brand new platform that we have developed in-house,” he said. “It’s about reducing parts and costs so we can get a super-exciting vehicle on the road with high technology without spending it on platform stamping and complicated structures.”

Fisker said the parties intend to build a “minimum” of 250,000 vehicles annually once the Lordstown plant becomes fully operational. He said the Pear would begin production at Lordstown in 2024.

“I think this will be redefining not only how you develop a vehicle, but also the content of the vehicle, the design of the vehicle and what you get for your money for an electric vehicle,” he said.

Lowering costs through the use of common components and seasoned design engineering will help to bring the retail price of the Pear to below $30,000, Fisker said.  Company engineers are already working with Foxconn with the design and layout of new production lines inside the Lordstown facility, he noted.

“We have an internal process that is unique,” Fisker told analysts.  “You completely have to rethink what a mobile device is for the future.”

This could also mean encouraging EV suppliers to locate closer to the company’s manufacturing operations in the United States.

Fisker said the company has hired a new senior vice president for manufacturing strategy that will help explore potential partnerships and joint ventures with EV battery producers or other suppliers that could locate in the U.S.

“Making 250,000 vehicles in Ohio, you’re going to need to have battery manufacturing in the U.S.,” he said. “There is nothing we are not looking at. All opportunities are open.”

He said the Pear model would be used for future innovation, such as a CO2-neutral vehicle by 2027. “Already a lot of these ideas are flowing into the Pear program,” Fisker said. “We are aiming to lead with the world’s most sustainable vehicles.”

The EV automaker is preparing to launch the Fisker Ocean in less than four months, an electric sport utility vehicle that is being manufactured at a plant in Austria.  The company announced Wednesday more than 56,000 reservations are in place and 5,000 pre-orders have been secured for that vehicle, which will begin production on Nov. 17 of this year.

“We are sold out of all 5,000 pre-orders,” he says of the Fisker Ocean 1. “We have the potential revenue of $350 million before production.”

Fisker Inc. reported a loss of $106 million during the second quarter and ended with cash and cash equivalents of $851.9 million as of June 20, 2022. “We have the resources to fully fund the Ocean launch in November and to stay on track with our other projects in 2022,” said Dr. Geeta Gupta-Fisker, the company’s chief financial officer.  The company continues to evaluate other funding options, she said.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.