This is the fourth time the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has looked into the Fisker Ocean SUV. This time, they are looking into several reports of “inadvertent automatic emergency braking.”
The agency’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) said it had received eight reports about these brake problems, three of which involved injuries. The ODI has already started looking into the car because people have said it loses its brakes, rolls over, and has doors that won’t open. No one has called the SUV back for any reason yet.
According to reports from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), owners’ automatic emergency brakes suddenly went off when there were no other cars or obstacles in the way of their cars. The range of stopping applications, according to the agency, is from short-term, partial applications that cause the vehicle to lose speed quickly to full applications that stop the vehicle completely in the travel lane.
It has been a lot of trouble for Fisker’s failing company, but the Ocean SUV is their first electric car. According to an Eltrys study published in February, owners of the Ocean SUV began reporting rapid power outages and brake problems almost as soon as Fisker began shipping them last year. The business has struggled to meet its own sales targets, ultimately ceasing production after selling less than 10,000 units.
The end of Fisker’s business is fast approaching. It hired a restructuring officer to help it find ways to keep its business going while lenders look at it. Several groups, including an engineering business that assisted in developing plans for a cheap electric vehicle and a pickup truck, are also suing the company. There are also at least 30 complaints under the lemon law against the company.
Some of Fisker’s competitors, like Rivian and Lucid, have had their first EVs on the market for a lot longer than the Ocean. However, the owners of this car have expressed significant concerns to the NHTSA about its safety. Upon publication of this story, the NHTSA’s database contained 135 reports related to the ocean.
On the other hand, Rivian has sent out more than 80,000 EVs since 2021, but the NHTSA has only gotten about 50 reports. Lucid has sent out more than 12,000 Air cars, and 35 unhappy customers have written reviews.
