Early adopters were left with cars plagued by battery failures, glitchy software, inconsistent key fobs, and door handles that did not always open. With the company gone, there was no way to fix any issues. Regulators logged dozens of complaints as replacement parts vanished. Passionate owners who spent top dollar on high-end trims saw their cars reduced to expensive driveway ornaments.<\/p>\n
Rather than accept defeat, thousands of Ocean owners have organized into their own makeshift car company. The Fisker Owners Association<\/a> (FOA) is a nonprofit that\u2019s launched third-party apps, built a global parts supply chain, and came together around a future for their orphaned vehicles. It\u2019s part car club, part tech startup, part survival mission. Fleming now serves as the organization\u2019s president.<\/p>\n \u201dEveryone who has an Ocean loves it,\u201d says Clint Bagley, an early adopter in California\u2019s Bay Area and FOA\u2019s treasurer. \u201cUntil the key fob stops working again and you can\u2019t get into it.\u201d<\/p>\n FOA calls itself the first entirely owner-controlled EV fleet in history. So far, 4,055 Ocean owners have signed up, paying $550 a year in dues that the group estimates will raise around $3 million annually, about 0.1 percent of Fisker\u2019s peak valuation. Only verified Ocean owners can become full members, but anyone can donate.<\/p>\n The grassroots effort has precedent \u2014 DeLorean diehards and Saab enthusiasts have kept their favorite brands alive after factory closures. But those efforts focused on preserving aging vehicles. FOA is attempting something different: real-time software updates and hardware improvements for a connected, two-year-old EV fleet.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been a car nerd my whole life, so to be in the position we are in now \u2013 with the ability to have input into the future direction of the car I love driving every day \u2013 is a unique experience,\u201d says Andrew Bock, an FOA member.<\/p>\n The organization has spawned three separate companies. Tsunami Automotive handles parts in North America while Tidal Wave covers Europe, scavenging insurance auctions and contracting with tooling manufacturers to reproduce components. UnderCurrent Automotive, run by former Google and Apple engineers, focuses on software solutions.<\/p>\n UnderCurrent\u2019s first product is OceanLink Pro, a third-party mobile app now used by over 1,200 members that restores basic EV features, such as remote battery monitoring and climate control. A companion device called OceanLink Pulse adds wireless CarPlay and Android Auto, with plans for future upgrades including keyless entry.<\/p>\n \u201cThose are things you would have expected to be in a $70,000 luxury car,\u201d Bagley says. \u201cBut, you know, we\u2019re happy to provide what the billion-dollar automaker apparently couldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n Image: Fisker<\/p>\n Auto industry analysts are divided on FOA\u2019s prospects.<\/p>\n \u201cFor owners of any EV company that stops production, it makes sense to form an organization to share resources and maintenance ideas,\u201d Seth Goldstein, an EV industry analyst at Morningstar, says. \u201cThis is a good way for Fisker owners to be able to maintain and upgrade their vehicles over time.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, insiders say Fisker\u2019s executives, including its CEO and founder, Henrik Fisker, failed to keep operations running while making a decent product.<\/p>\n \u201cI think to see particular vehicle\u2019s owner group team together, collaborate, and develop solutions to problems and make updates to their own vehicles without assistance from Fisker itself is wild, but I applaud their efforts,\u201d Robby DeGraff, manager of product and consumer insights at AutoPacific, tells The Verge. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame and quite frankly pathetic that Henrik Fisker has vanished into thin air and left the thousands of Ocean owners to fend for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker in 2023. Image: AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u2018They\u2019re dangerous\u2019<\/p>\n FOA\u2019s remaining obstacles are severe. Resale values have plunged more than 40 percent since Fisker\u2019s collapse, according to retail specialists CarGurus. Karl Barth, an attorney representing Ocean owners in ongoing litigation<\/a>, says some clients\u2019 cars have shut down mid-turn while others received trade-in offers as low as $3,000.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re dangerous,\u201d Barth says, citing an August recall for brake software that reduced regenerative braking after hitting bumps. It covered 7,745 vehicles.<\/p>\n But, like FOA, companies also see value in the vehicles. In July, American Lease, a New York taxi company, bought more than 3,200 unsold Oceans for $46 million and now rents them to Uber and Lyft drivers from a Bronx parking lot. FOA initially hoped to partner with American Lease on software updates, but Bagley says the relationship soured over disagreements about handling recalls.<\/p>\n Fisker and American Lease didn\u2019t respond to several requests for comment.<\/p>\n Despite the headwinds, FOA remains optimistic about its unprecedented experiment. Whether a volunteer organization can succeed where a billion-dollar startup failed remains an open question.<\/p>\n For now, the Ocean\u2019s future depends on owners determined to do what Fisker could not: keep their cars running. If FOA doesn\u2019t work, Bagley likens Fisker to the Fyre Festival, but instead of soggy cheese sandwiches and glamping yurts, Ocean buyers got a luxury EV that might stop working at any moment.<\/p>\n Follow topics and authors<\/strong> from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.<\/p>\n![\"blue](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Fisker_Ocean_for_Deliveries_PR_2.jpg\"\/)
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