Ocean

Make
Fisker
Segment
SUV

Fisker has announced that, in partnership with a modular battery-swapping company called Ample, it intends to include swappable batteries in the Ocean EV by the beginning of 2024. If so, Fisker will likely be the first American automaker to do so as others, including Tesla, appear to have given up on the idea. The last time we heard about Tesla's take on it was back in 2017.

"Our partnership with Ample will enable us to broaden the vehicle use case for our customers," said Henrik Fisker, Chairman and CEO. "We're thrilled to offer Ample's innovative battery-swapping system, which will bring a new level of affordability to the Fisker Ocean and potentially to the other vehicles we intend to bring to market in the future."

However, it doesn't look like it will be something initially aimed at the mainstream. Instead, Fisker says it's aiming at fleet customers "who are looking to transition to electric mobility without economic or operational compromises." By operational compromising, we believe Fisker means having to sit around and wait for a battery to charge. Fisker claims that its battery-swapping solution will get drivers back on the road as quickly as using gasoline but with less expense. The announcement also specifies those in high-mileage work, such as the taxi industry. The Ocean promises a range of 350 miles on the EPA cycle, but more capability is always welcome.

"We're incredibly excited about our relationship with Fisker. They've developed best-in-class EVs that our team is proud to support," said Khaled Hassounah, co-founder and CEO of Ample. "We're looking forward to assisting with making the Fisker Ocean available to a wide segment of customers as a part of our goal to bring more EVs on the road."

The idea of battery swapping has been around since people started questioning the charging times on EVs. There are a lot of ins and outs to discussions of the practical side of battery swapping, with companies like BMW outright saying it's a waste of time, while Nio started using it as a business model in 2021 in China.