YouTube’s Rich Rebuilds has been taking electric vehicles apart to see what makes them tick for years, so when a bargain-priced Fisker Ocean came on his radar, he had to buy it. Even if it was totally bricked. This car was purchased new for over $70,000, had several thousand dollars of paint protection and tint applied, was driven for 300 miles, and traded in. It sat on the dealer lot for long enough for the battery to die, and the techs at the dealer couldn’t figure it out. So they sold it to Rich for just 10 grand!
As Rich notes in the video, the car is worth way more than ten grand in parts alone, as current Fisker owners will be looking for ways to keep their cars on the road for years to come. The company has gone the way of the dodo, and parts supply and software updates are never going to come. What you see is what you get, and what you get is kind of shitty.
While the video is mostly just 23 minutes of some guys messing around with a dead car and a battery charger, they do get the thing to respond to a few inputs before promptly getting the parking brake stuck on. Even in preliminary investigation, the Ocean fails to pass muster. This car is clearly not built to the standard that a $70,000 car should be. With some luck Rich and his friends will be able to charge the 12 volt system up enough to get the high voltage battery to communicate with an EVSE.
If they can’t, this car is likely going to be stripped and sold off to recoup the original $10,000 investment. And who could blame them?