Fisker unveils Ronin: an electric convertible to compete with Tesla Roadster

Fisker has unveiled its next electric car, if it can survive long enough to build it, the new Ronin: an electric convertible to compete with Tesla Roadster.

When Henrik Fisker first launched Fisker Inc., his latest EV startup after the previous one failed, the company unveiled a bunch of prototypes, including the Fisker EMotion.

The Ronin was first teased last month when the company claimed that it will have 600 miles of range.

The electric supercar appears to be the final version of the EMotion, which was put on the back burner in favor of the Ocean electric SUV.

Fisker managed to grab a lot of headlines by claiming that the Ocean would be a $35,000 electric SUV.

However, it is only producing a $70,000 version of the SUV and it is losing a lot of money on it – meaning that reservation holders shouldn’t hold their breath for the $35,000 version.

In the meantime, Fisker appears to be going to the completely other side of the market with the Ronin.

At its ‘Fisker Product Vision Day 2023’ today, the automaker unveiled the first prototype of the Ronin, an electric GT supercar.

Henrik Fisker called it “the world’s first four-door electric convertible,” but that’s a bit of a stretch with the rear doors being small butterfly doors.

Nonetheless, it can sit five people, according to Fisker, which is impressive, but they didn’t show the interior in the unveiling.

City Dwellers’s Jamie Dow was at the scene of the unveiling, but he says that the very dark window hide the interior and the company is not making accessible.

This is very much going to be in the supercar category with a 0 to 60 mph in “about 2 seconds”.

The CEO also mentioned about 1,000 horsepower.

The few specs that Fisker released during the event made it clear that they want this to be a Tesla Roadster competitor if that car ever makes it to market.

But during the presentation, Fisker tried hard not to mention Tesla. When the CEO explained how they plan to achieve a range of 600 miles, he said:

There is already some integrated battery pack out there, and of course, we know about those, but we have actually looked at something different.

Anyone familiar with Tesla’s 4680 cell and structural battery pack would believe that he is referring to those when saying that there are “some integrated battery packs out there”, but he says something different?

The CEO continued:

We are looking to integrated the cells into the structure of the body and that will give us our goal of getting to 600 miles of range.

That’s exactly what Tesla’s structural battery pack is: cells are part of the structure.

It sounds like the technology behind the Ronin is not fully baked just yet and it doesn’t have to be since Fisker says that it is coming “toward the end of 2025”.

The company didn’t mention pricing, but it looks like it will be comfortably in the six figures.

City Dwellers’s Take

There are quite a few cool things about the Ronin, but it’s hard to take it super seriously with Fisker’s credibility right now.

By that I mean that the company is now having issues making its Ocean program financially sustainable. It is draining money, losing $120 million a quarter while only producing the most expensive version of the Ocean.

Yet, it unveiled 3 new vehicles at its event today.

It sounds like it is juggling too many vehicle programs for its current financial health. They claim that all these vehicles are coming in 2025, when a $300 million convertible note it just issues will mature.

Unless they can have a miraculous financial turn that make them profitable by then, they will see a significant dilution of their stock, making harder for them to raise money.

Fisker definitely has some cool ideas that I wish would make it to the market, but at this point, I think they should focus to make the Ocean a successful program, which it is not and I think Fisker doesn’t know that.

During the event, Henrik appeared to take a victory round for the Ocean for having a bunch of reservations for it, but that’s not what makes a successful vehicle program.