FISKER OCEAN
THE WORLD'S BEST WRITERS IN THE NEW CARS THAT MATTER
Electrification has opened up car making, and designer turned industrialist Henrik Fisker has grabbed the opportunity with both hands
First drives 300 mile test
The 300-mile test
NEW CAR MEETS REAL WORLD
Spies in raincoats. Mozart. Wiener schnitzel. Habsburg palaces. Fancy pastries. Vienna is known for lots of things. But the great driving roads rarely get mentioned. Not roads within the city limits of the Austrian capital itself, of course, but just outside.
In fact, it’s surrounded by them – making it an illuminating location for our first drive in the first car from Fisker Inc. To the south and east, some fantastic roads head out towards Lake Neusiedl and the Hungarian border, slicing through the Pannonian Plain, where strong winds, unsealed surfaces and occasional flooding are common challenges. Or a 125-mile loop through the lightly populated forest district and the wine country northeast of Vienna, where steep climbs and narrow valleys alternate with lush rolling hills and vast billowing fields.
But we’re focusing on a stunning mix of great driving roads to the north and west of the city. One of our drives takes us out to Krems on the S5 dual carriageway, heading towards the Czech border. But the most interesting, challenging and ultimately revealing trip is on a shorter but much twistier route. The legendary Höhenstrasse meanders skywards from the outskirts of the capital to the nearby Kahlenberg, from where it follows the Danube upstream before abruptly curving south to the Tulbingerkogel summit. Descending in a series of hairpins via the Exelberg, where the first motor races were staged between 1899 and 1910, the tight loop comes full circle only about an hour later.
Why Austria at all, for a car that bears the name of a Danish car designer turned businessman who now lives in the US? Because it’s built in Graz, by Magna.
Our test car is a red top-of-the-line Ocean Extreme which retails at £60,880. That buys you a big 106.5kWh (net) battery, two motors good for a combined 556bhp and 544lb ft of instant torque, plus all-wheel drive and the ability to accelerate from zero to 62mph in 4.0 seconds.
Inside, the trim is man-made, but with the exception of the perfectly shaped seats and the two high-res monitors, the perceived quality is no match for the German premium alternatives. In our Extreme, the large centre screen can change position from portrait on the move to landscape when the vehicle is stationary. Below it sits an array of direct-access buttons for fan speed, temperature, volume and demisting. Adjusting the steering wheel is an awkward three-step process. There’s no ignition key or starter button – to set the Ocean in motion just move t
