Fisker to ramp up Ocean production in Q4, can it hit its already revised annual guidance?

Fisker Inc. has shared intentions to increase US deliveries of its flagship Ocean SUV while simultaneously ramping up overseas production to 300 units per day. While the scaling is encouraging news, can the American automaker still hit its 2023 production guidance after lowering its target once already?

Fisker Inc. is a mere two months away from the first anniversary of commencing production of its Ocean EV in Austria with contract manufacturer Magna Steyr. Since then, production has slowly but surely ramped up but is still nowhere near the pace the American automaker had originally hoped.

When Fisker shared its production guidance in Q3 of 2022, we said it was ambitious, but having a manufacturing juggernaut like Magna in its corner left more room for optimism than usual. The original guidance was to produce 42,400 units by the end of 2023 at the following pace:

• Q1 2023: 300+ units
• Q2: 8,000+ units
• Q3: 15,000+ units
• Q4: Remainder to reach 42,400 unit goal

By the end of Q1 2023, Fisker had only produced 55 Ocean EVs, delivering merely two of them. As a result, Fisker lowered its Q2 target from 8,000 units to between 1,400 and 1,700 and lowered its annual guidance to the ballpark of 32,000 to 36,000 EVs built. By Q2, Fisker’s numbers had jumped significantly (1,022 units produced), but still well short of the 1,400 target and not even in the same area code as the original mark.

Following its Q2 report, reality started to set in as Fisker once again lowered its annual production guidance to 20,000 to 23,000 Ocean SUVs. Today, Fisker says it will further ramp production in Austria but will really need to get cooking to hit its once- twice-revised annual target.

Fisker looks to enter production sprint in Q4

According to Fisker Inc., it is aiming to increase its production output with Magna Steyr from 180 units per day to approximately 300 in Q4. As of September 4, Fisker had built 3,123 Ocean EVs for customers – that’s progress, by contrast to the start of the year, but a huge miss compared to its original output goals laid out last year.

Fisker says over 450 Ocean EVs have been or are on their way to be delivered to US customers, and another 1,500 vehicles are anticipated to arrive by ship to the States this weekend. Chairman and CEO Henrik Fisker spoke:

Rest assured what we are pushing out logistic providers and teams to get Fisker vehicles in the hands of our exceptional customers. Our early customers have been with us as pioneers, giving us valuable feedback to make our car even better. I will never forget the commitment that these customers have shown. The result for their feedback is now showing up in our vehicles!

Generally speaking, amendments to vehicles based on driver feedback usually take place before customer deliveries begin, but this is a young company trying to move quickly – and the growing pains are discernible. Luckily, EVs are more easily fixed via OTA updates.

Looking ahead, Fisker anticipates receiving all 5,000 of the planned Ocean One launch editions from Magna by the end of the month, with customer deliveries stretching into September. If Fisker and Magna are indeed able to ramp up production to 300 units per day, it could potentially build 21,000 Ocean EVs with weekends off – and much more than that if Magna’s crews are assembling seven days a week.

That would get Fisker through its eraser-marked production guidance for the fiscal year. All eyes will be on the company’s Q3 report before we enter the home stretch here in 2023.