Fisker is sourcing CATL batteries for the Ocean

The Chinese battery cell manufacturer CATL will supply the batteries for the Fisker Ocean. The supply agreement now concluded by Fisker and CATL runs initially until 2025.

Production of the Fisker Ocean at Magna in Austria is scheduled to start on 17 November 2022, as reported. According to Fisker, the CATL deal covers the years 2023 to 2025, but since CATL has already been a development partner since 2020, the Oceans still being built in 2022 are unlikely to be without batteries. It is also possible that Fisker means the model years 2023 to 2025, but this is not clear from the announcement.

What is clear, however, is the scope of the deal: Fisker has ordered a total of five gigawatt-hours of battery cells. Similar to Tesla, Fisker is taking a two-pronged approach. NMC cells are to be used in the high-capacity battery packs, while LFP cells will be used in the cheaper version. However, Fisker does not specify how exactly the five GWh will be divided up and how large the battery packs per vehicle will be. But there is a statement about the charging power: both the battery with NMC cells and the LFP counterpart will be able to be charged with up to 250 kW at peak.

“Securing this supply agreement with CATL is another important step in the development of the Fisker Ocean and achieving our battery performance objectives,” says Henrik Fisker. “By utilizing multiple chemistries and designing an extremely efficient pack, we will be able to achieve our targeted driving range for the Fisker Ocean Sport and bring segment benchmark-driving range to the longer-range versions of Fisker Ocean.”

In the twelve months leading up to the start of production, the two companies now intend to work together to optimise the structure of the battery pack. On the one hand, to meet the aforementioned performance and range targets, but also direct charging should be possible. Fisker understands this to mean that electricity generated in the solar roof of the SUV can be charged directly into the drive battery.

It has been known since October 2020 that the Fisker Ocean will be built by Magna on the basis of Magna’s electric vehicle architecture in combination with the ‘Fisker Flexible Platform Adaptive Design’ (FF-PAD). Previously, there had also been negotiations with Volkswagen to build the Ocean on the MEB. Fisker plans to unveil the production version of the electric SUV at the LA Auto Show in a few weeks.

fiskerinc.com (PDF)