LOS ANGELES — This year’s Los Angeles Auto Show is bursting at the seams with electric vehicles touting their zero-emissions cred, but Fisker is taking environmentalism one step further. Its Ocean battery electric SUV is also incorporating an abundance of recycled materials. 

What You Need To Know

  • Unveiled at the LA Auto Show, the Fisker Ocean battery electric SUV is also incorporating an abundance of recycled materials

  • When the Ocean comes on the market in November 2022, it will be available in three versions

  • Fisker went public in October 2020, raising $1.6 billion in funding that has helped the Manhattan Beach startup hire 300 people and set the company on track to build up to 50,000 cars per year

  • Fisker plans to build the Ocean at a carbon-dioxide neutral factory that runs on hydropower

The wheels are made from recycled aluminum and carbon fiber, the carpets are manufactured from recycled plastic bottles and fishing net from the ocean — even recycled T-shirts are used to craft some of the vehicle’s interiors.

“That’s the exciting part," Fisker Inc. Chief Executive Henrik Fisker said Wednesday morning, as he introduced the production version of the highly anticipated Ocean to a soundtrack of crashing waves.

When the Ocean comes on the market in November 2022, it will be available in three versions: A sport model that costs $37,499, is front wheel drive, has a single motor and gets 250 miles per charge; the Ultra that costs $49,999, is all-wheel drive, has a dual motor and gets 340 miles per charge; and the Extreme that costs $68,999, is all-wheel drive, has a dual motor and gets 350+ miles per charge. Federal and California incentives will reduce the car's cost by about $10,000.

Fisker went public in October 2020, raising $1.6 billion in funding that has helped the Manhattan Beach startup hire 300 people and set the company on track to build up to 50,000 cars per year by 2023.

Next year, Fisker plans to set up experience centers, starting with one at an as-yet-unannounced location in LA. Following that, delivery centers will be located outside major cities so the company can keep costs down.

“To me, it’s how do you create an innovative, exciting vehicle that’s affordable for everyone? That’s what Fisker is about,” Fisker said.

To that end, the Ocean’s base is constructed from aluminum, but its upper body is steel because it is lower cost to repair. Fisker says it has already lined up a network of service centers to repair customers’ vehicles.

Even though the company is focused on reducing costs, they aren’t skimping on technology. The car comes with a “California mode” that allows all the vehicle’s windows, including the one in the rear door, to roll down simultaneously. The dashboard screen can also rotate so it is oriented horizontally or vertically.

Fisker is pushing the envelope with innovation in a multitude of areas. It will be the only company to offer a flex lease. Available in 2023, it will allow drivers to lease the vehicle for $379 per month up to 30,000 miles per year and give it back whenever they like, even after just a single month. Lease-returned vehicles will be re-leased for 12 years, after which Fisker plans to recycle them.

Already, Fisker plans to build the Ocean at a carbon-dioxide neutral factory that runs on hydropower, he said. By 2027, his goal is that the entire vehicle will be carbon neutral.