US-Based EV Firm Fisker Opens India Headquarters In Hyderabad

Last Updated on April 13, 2022 by Anu Joy

Following in the footsteps of Tesla Motors, another American EV car manufacturer has set up shop in India. Fisker, a California based automotive manufacturer, has established its headquarters in Hyderabad. The Indian wing of Fisker has been named Fisker Vigyan, and will be instrumental in the research and development of the products lined up for India. 

KT Rama Rao, Minister of IT and Industries for Telangana, visited Fisker’s headquarters in California, USA, to talk with Fisker’s top executives before giving the deal a green signal. Fisker Vigyan will share its learnings and work together with the engineering and product development facilities in California.

The Indian arm of Fisker will also focus on software development, embedded electronics, AI machine learning, virtual vehicle development support functions, and data analytics. Fisker Vigyan would be creating over 200 job opportunities and will be hiring local employees from the Telangana state.  

Fisker Chairman and CEO. Henrik Fisker, said: 

Our expansion into India represents both a strategic market opportunity and a significant boost to our global engineering capabilities. We have already started local hiring in India, and expect our new team in Hyderabad to be fully operational and engaged on multiple product programs within weeks. Our talent pool in India will help us pave the way for the launch of Fisker Ocean and Fisker PEAR in India.

For those unversed, Fisker is the brainchild of Henrik Fisker, a Danish-American automotive designer. He is well known for designing masterpieces such as the Aston Martin DB9, Aston Martin V8 Vantage, BMW Z8, and many more.

The Fisker Ocean is expected to be the first product for India. It is an all-electric crossover and will be built at Magna Steyr’s factory in Graz, Austria. Magna Steyr has an experience of over 100 years in automotive manufacturing and currently manufactures the BMW 5-series, Jaguar E-Pace, Jaguar I-Pace, Toyota Supra, and many more. So, expect the finish levels of the Fisker Ocean electric vehicle to be top-notch. Even the cars meant for the American market will be produced at Magna Steyr’s facility in Austria. 

Fisker Ocean: Highlights

The Fisker Ocean will be a premium electric SUV/crossover and will get interiors built out of sustainable materials. The top of the dashboard will be covered with materials processed out of recycled T-shirts, while the seats, door pads, and steering wheel will get vegan leather. The steering wheel will get a combination of scrolling physical buttons and touch-capacitive controls. It gets a humongous 17.1-inch touchscreen infotainment system which is a motorised unit. While driving, it stays in portrait mode, but when the car is parked, you can set it to “Hollywood Mode” (Landscape mode) to enjoy your favourite video content. 

The front-end of the vehicle is very bold looking with a muscular wide stance that might remind you of the Range Rover Evoque. The headlights are all LED units along with a wide connecting DRL that joins the illuminated Ocean logo at the centre. The side profile comes with a hunkered-down stance and large 22-inch three-spoke carbon wheels.

The rear end seems to be inspired by Land Rover cars, with a minimalistic design accentuated by the very slim LED tail lamps and the sporty diffuser at the bottom. The panoramic sunroof holds solar panels which are reported to provide up to 2500 km of driving range per year. Also, another nifty feature is the ‘California Mode’, which rolls down all the four windows, rear quarter glasses, and the rear windshield. This mode will even let to throw in a surfboard from the rear windshield with ease.

The Fisker Ocean will compete with the Tesla Model Y in the market and will offer a driving range between 440km and 630km, depending on the variants. The lower variants will get Li-ion batteries, whereas the higher-spec variants will come with NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) battery packs for a longer range. The topmost variant is expected to go into production in November 2022. The prices will start at $37,499 (approx. ₹28,50,000) and will go all the way up to $68,999 (approx. ₹52,50,000) in the US. 

The Fisker Ocean will come as a CBU (Completely Built Unit) in India, which will significantly increase its starting price due to the heavy import duties in the country. However, according to a report, the company aims to manufacture its mass-market product, the Pear EV, in India. It has collaborated with Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that manufactures iPhones in India, to produce its future vehicles locally in India. The Fisker Pear will be a global electric car and will start at an aggressive ₹20 lakh in India when it goes on sale in 2024-25.