Fisker, the company that plans to make the ecologically sustainable Fisker Ocean EV, has secured a battery contract with CATL. With full production scheduled to begin in November 2022, Fisker is arranging what it will need to make the electric cars. It has already secured the services of Magna on engineering and manufacturing at the Magna Steyr assembly plant in Austria. The Ocean is based on Magna’s electric vehicle platform.
Fisker has tapped on CATL for a supply of batteries. It will get 5 GWh worth of battery annually from 2023 to 2025.
CATL, based in China, is the biggest EV battery maker globally and the domestic EV battery supply chain. It also partners with manufacturers like Tesla, Ford, and Volkswagen.
Apart from getting batteries to power its cars, Fisker will benefit from the name association with CATL.
The Ocean will start at $37,500 but will be cheaper in the US market because of the federal tax credit worth up to $7,500. Fisker uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries in the base model to achieve a low price.
LFP batteries cost less than nickel manganese cobalt batteries but yield less range due to the less energy density. They are also safer because they are not as prone to thermal runway that causes fires in some EVs. However, they can provide enough driving range to cover the average driver’s daily driving needs.
Fisker is not the only EV maker using LFP batteries. Tesla has announced it would put LFP batteries in its base versions of the Model 3 and Model Y globally. The models made in China already use them.
However, like Tesla, Fisker will offer the Ocean with NMC batteries for buyers that need a longer range at a higher price. CATL will also supply these more expensive battery packs.
There is no information on the range from these batteries yet, but Fisker hopes to reveal more about the Ocean at the upcoming Los Angeles Auto Show in November.
Magna will commence production in the first quarter of 2022 but will be limited to two units per day. But the CEO, Henrik Fisher, has loftier goals:
“It just shows you kind of what it means for us to be together with somebody like Magna. It’s important because it really shows we can scale up, and our vehicle is a higher volume vehicle. Our objective is to get well over 50,000 vehicles a year and hopefully eventually to over 100,000 vehicles a year.”