Things have not been going well for Fisker. The owners that have managed to finally get their hands on an Ocean have been dealing with several issues, some that are potentially dangerous. One YouTube reviewer with an incredible 18.5 million followers highlighted these problems in a video that did not pull punches titled “This is the Worst Car I’ve Ever Reviewed.”
We first spotted what’s going on from a Tweet by @MorningBrew. About three weeks ago, tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee got his hands on an Ocean for a review that was posted to his automotive channel, Auto Focus. Less than a minute into the video Brownlee calls the Ocean “…the worst car I’ve ever tested. But probably not in the ways you’re expecting.” He then goes on to explain how much of a mess it was trying to get Fisker to give him a car to review.
Apparently, Fisker kept promising him one and then delaying. Fed up, he actually found one to review by way of a local Mitsubishi dealer that had — and still has, as of this writing — a lightly used Ocean in the inventory.
Once he got his hands on this used Ocean (it only has 532km clocked), Brownlee says Fisker somehow found out that he was reviewing it and asked that he delay his review due to the software issues the car has been having. Fisker told him it wanted him to save his review until after a big “software update 2.0” that will roll out soon for the Ocean. While Brownlee said he believed the company, he mentioned that “it’s not really in my policy to wait on promised future software updates.” Which makes sense. This is the car that customers have been driving, after all.
But what did Brownlee mean when he said that the Ocean was bad, but not in the expected way? That comes up quickly. According to Brownlee, many of the Ocean’s fundamentals are fine; its exterior design is handsome, and on the surface, it seems like a good car. The problems quickly start popping up when you get in the car and start driving.
Brownlee found random blank buttons. He also points out that there’s no way to know what state of charge the rooftop solar panels are in, or how much extra range they’ve given. The centre armrest is another, where nearly half of the space in it is taken up by a weird fold-out tray that looks like something that would be on an airplane. The review was capped off by Brownlee saying that even if someone gave him an Ocean, he wouldn’t want to drive it.
The review sent Fisker scurrying to try to contain the damage. One of the automaker’s senior engineers got in contact with the Mitsubishi dealership that loaned Brownlee the Ocean. In a video, managers from the dealership record the phone conversation they have with the Fisker engineer. It’s over six minutes of “what the hell is happening?”
The engineer began the phone call by asking how many Oceans the dealer has purchased, to which the manager says four. He then asked for the VINs, and the manager wanted to know why he would want those. The engineer said that they’re trying to track down the recent review of an Ocean “that’s been blowing up social media,” referring to Brownlee’s review.
During the phone call, however, the engineer let slip a couple of things that have had some ripple effects: First, he says Brownlee’s review has everyone in management, including Henrik Fisker himself, shaken up.
But the biggest nugget of information regards the promised 2.0 software update. The engineer spends most of the call trying to gather information on Brownlee, then mentions that Fisker can send someone to the dealership to update the car; the 2.0 software update would allegedly fix some of the issues that Brownlee had with the car.
However, the update doesn’t sound like it’s going to fix everything. Fisker apparently wants to push out this update even though it’s not fully complete. The engineer mentions that the update”… still got some holes in it. That I’ll be quite candid about.” The video of the call has since garnered over 3.8 million views on TikTok.
Meanwhile, as @MorningBrew pointed out, Fisker’s stock price has slid 50 percent since Brownlee’s review went up. Could the review have influenced things? Maybe. Brownlee has a pretty sizable social media following. But Fisker’s proverbial ship has been sinking since before the review went up and really tanked when the company announced it was looking for restructuring consultants ahead of a possible bankruptcy filing earlier this week. All Brownlee’s review did was just let in a bit more water.