Fisker is issuing the first recall for its all-electric Ocean SUV because of problems with the warning lights, according to new information published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The recall technically only applies to all 6,864 Ocean SUVs in the US, as other regions have their own safety regimes.
The recall comes after months of problems with the Ocean SUV, and at a time when Fisker is on the brink of bankruptcy.
This recall is not related to any of the four active investigations NHTSA has launched into the Ocean.
With those, the agency is probing inadvertent automatic emergency braking, sudden braking loss, vehicle rollaway and doors that won’t open.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a third investigation into EV startup Fisker’s Ocean SUV, this time centered on problems getting the doors to open.
The agency says the complaints point to a an “intermittent failure” of the door latch and handle system.
The Ocean SUV is already being investigated by ODI over problems with its braking system, and for complaints about the vehicle rolling away on uneven surfaces.
It paused production of the Ocean in March and reported just $121 million in the bank.
But the new safety probe suggests a deeper problem with the SUV’s doors.
The German automaker announced Monday at CES 2024 in Las Vegas plans to add an AI-powered chatbot into all Volkswagen models equipped with its IDA voice assistant.
The AI-based chatbot, which is based on software company Cerence’s Chat Pro product, will roll out in the second quarter, starting with Europe.
For now, Volkswagen models in the United States won’t have the feature.
The voice assistant is activated with the “Hello IDA” wake word or by pressing the button on the steering wheel.
The response will come through the IDA voice assistant so drivers may not even know when ChatGPT is and is not in use.
Fisker remains far from meeting CEO and founder Henrik Fisker’s publicly stated goal of delivering 300 electric SUVs per day globally, according to internal documents viewed by TechCrunch.
The EV startup spent much of December aiming to meet an internal sales goal of between 100 and 200 vehicles a day in North America, where the bulk of its inventory and sales efforts are.
Fisker is delivering its SUVs in a number of European countries, and contract manufacturer Magna Steyr builds them in Austria.
Henrik Fisker told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the lack of a physical footprint has harmed sales here.
The slow pace of deliveries has widened the gulf between the amount of Fisker Ocean SUVs being produced by Magna and the number sold.
But in the rest of the world, where automobiles are often more utilitarian and sparsely decorated, SUVs and crossovers are considered less cool. In countries like Japan or Korea, for…
