American EV maker Fisker is preparing to shift its attention between the long-awaited Ocean SUV and the promised Pear city car, which company boss Henrik Fisker says will sit between segments and will look like “a futuristic little space shuttle”.
In a rambling discussion with Autocar published this week, Henrik Fisker described the Pear – an acronym for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution – as “kind of a funky vehicle” but one that will not easily slip into an existing automotive segment.
“I guess you’d call it a crossover but it doesn’t really look like an SUV. It looks like a futuristic little space shuttle – to describe it best,” Fisker told Autocar, adding that “it’s probably a little risky” to deliver a car outside of the traditional automotive segments but that the car will have “a lot of unique features that have never been done before.”
One of the “unique features” promised for the Pear will be the so-called “Houdini trunk”, an alternative to the traditional hatch, though what exactly it will do or behave like is anyone’s guess. However, given that it is named after the magician Harry Houdini, famous for his disappearing tricks, one can safely assume the Pear’s trunk will “disappear” to some degree within the car’s design.
Sneak peek inside the #FiskerPEAR. The sporty crossover is ready to revolutionize mobility, with its first-ever #Fisker Houdini trunk, a large, wraparound windscreen, and MANY, cool new features and technologies – we can’t wait to tell you more!#AutomotiveRevolution #EVs pic.twitter.com/ukL07RkPXc
— Fisker Inc. (@FiskerInc) June 11, 2022
Fisker told Autocar that the boot is accessed in a “very unique” way while there will also be a number of innovative storage solutions in the cabin.
The Pear will be Fisker’s second EV, after the Ocean and due to be launched before the company’s promised all-electric sport Grand Tourer being developed under the moniker Project Ronin.
The EV will be built at the Lordstown Motors factory Ohio in the United States – previously owned by General Motors – in partnership with Taiwanese manufacturing megalith Foxconn, who closed the purchase from GM earlier this year.
The two companies expect the Fisker Pear to begin production in 2024 and, after a ramp up period, reach annual production of 250,000 units per year.
Henrik Fisker also says that the Pear “is the vehicle that ultimately will take us to a million vehicles – we hope – per year, in 2027.”
More importantly, Fisker is aiming to price the Pear at below $US30,000, around $A42,500 at current conversion rates, making it a truly affordable rival to entry-level EVs planned to launch in 2025 by Volkswagen Group trio Cupra, Skoda, and Volkswagen.
The Pear will be built on a dedicated steel platform – unlike the Ocean on its aluminium skateboard architecture – which will also be used to build a further two unnamed Fisker EVs.
The Fisker Pear is already available for pre-order for a down payment of $US250.
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about climate change, clean technology, and electric vehicles for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electric vehicles and clean technologies for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His preferred mode of transport is his feet.