Oh, Cool, Our $69K Fisker Ocean Is Only Worth $21K Now

We bought a new Fisker Ocean for our long-term fleet just two months ago

written by Steven Ewing^{Director, Editorial Content
Steven Ewing has worked in the automotive industry since 2003. In that time, he's written thousands of car-related articles and tested just as many vehicles. Steven is Edmunds' director of Editorial Content and has previously been on staff at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog, Motor1.com and CNET Roadshow. Steven has also contributed to Car and Driver, Top Gear, and dozens of other automotive publications. In his spare time, Steven loves to play the drums, cook and whip around Los Angeles in his 1999 Mazda MX-5 Miata.}
3/29/2024
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We paid $69,012 for a brand-new Fisker Ocean in January 2024.
Fisker has since drastically lowered the price of the Ocean, and the company is experiencing mega financial woes.
Following these updates, we decided to have our Ocean appraised. The results are ... not good.

Depreciation is a normal part of car ownership; the moment you drive a brand-new vehicle off the lot, it starts to lose money. But often times, extenuating circumstances can lead to a car's rate of depreciation accelerating. Which brings us to our long-term Fisker Ocean, a car on which we have officially taken a big, hot, carpeted-jacuzzi-in-a-depressing-motel-room bath.

We bought a 2023 Fisker Ocean Extreme for our long-term test fleet in January — as in, two months ago. At the time, we paid $69,012 for a pretty loaded example of Fisker's electric SUV, with the promise of over-the-air enhancements to come.

But following a brunt of bad news for Fisker, Inc. this week — including rumors of bankruptcy and a mega price drop on 2023 model-year Oceans in an effort to boost cash flow — we thought it wise to have our Ocean appraised at our local CarMax store. (Full discolsure: Edmunds is a division of CarMax.) The appraisal we received was shocking, to say the least.

Yep, you read that correctly: Our 2-month-old Fisker Ocean with 4,220 miles on the odometer is worth $21,000, according to CarMax. That's a depreciation of 69.6%.

For context, experts say most new vehicles depreciate an average of 20% in their first year of ownership, with subsequent 15% decreases in the years after. On that timeline, we've experienced more than five years' worth of depreciation in just two months. Two months.

Life with our Ocean hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. We experienced a number of problems right off the bat, and while a major software update fixed a number of the SUV's troubles, our car is still missing many of the features we paid for.

Edmunds says

The significantly lower prices might be compelling, but we cannot stress it enough: Do not buy a new Fisker Ocean.

Albert Hernandez and Cameron Rogers contributed to this story.

by Steven Ewing

Steven Ewing has worked in the automotive industry since 2003. In that time, he's written thousands of car-related articles and tested just as many vehicles. Steven is Edmunds' director of Editorial Content and has previously been on staff at Winding Road magazine, Autoblog, Motor1.com and CNET Roadshow. Steven has also contributed to Car and Driver, Top Gear, and dozens of other automotive publications. In his spare time, Steven loves to play the drums, cook and whip around Los Angeles in his 1999 Mazda MX-5 Miata.