Fisker Pear: 2024 release, sub-$30k price & U.S. production [Update]

Update: ‘Price & Production’ section updated.

The Fisker Pear, announced as a budget electric car project in 2021 has officially become the brand’s second product, following the Fisker Ocean SUV. Reservations for the Fisker Pear are open in the United States. Early birds can pre-order with a small deposit of USD 250. Customers making a second reservation get a USD 150 discount (second reservation deposit: USD 100).

The word PEAR is an abbreviation of Personal Electric Automotive Revolution. Inspiration for the Fisker Pear “has come from some unconventional sources.” Here’s what we know about the upcoming affordable electric car:

Design

Fisker announced the Pear as its economy-class EV in February 2021 and released a teaser along with the announcement, suggesting it would be a new light crossover. Given the high popularity of crossover/SUV models in the brand’s core markets (existing and planned), it is understandable that it would prefer traits of this body type in the product.

“I guess you’d call it (Pear) a crossover,” Fisker Chairman & CEO Henrik Fisker told Autocar, subsequently sharing a video showing a Pear prototype testing in an urban area.

Front

Despite its smaller size, the Fisker Pear looks more aggressive than the Ocean. For an intense look, the slim headlamps tuck under the hood’s shut line. The car features an illuminated Pear logo and an extension of the LED DRLs in the headlamps. Pentagon-shaped black housings suggest that the upper lights are LED DRLs only, with low- and main-beam lights mounted separately. The lower area has a huge grille with honeycomb inserts, probably for auto-shutoff.

Side

The Fisker Pear has an unusual shape, but in generic terms, one could call it a crossover. As opposed to the Ocean, which has a squarish and edgy exterior, the Pear has a rounded and curvy appearance.

The Pear features a roofline that drops quickly from the B-pillar, and then meets the C-pillar to form a curve. Its roofline curvature and large windows, which are certainly bigger than those of the Ocean, remind us of some oddball Citroen vans. Nonetheless, the Fisker Pear’s design is distinctive and is likely to appeal to a wide audience.

The chunky wheels are the 22-inch F5 AirGlider alloys lifted from the Ocean, and they pair well with the fun but rugged exterior. Also worth noting on the sides are flush-fitting door handles, circular wheel arches, and fender flares featuring marker lights/reflectors.

Rear

With an upright and tall rear end, the Fisker Ocean should provide a lot of cargo volume behind the seats, and the driver will have good visibility while backing up. By encircling the glass area with tail lights, the EV gets a sci-fi look and the car should be easily visible from behind. The lower section looks swoopy and, like at the front, has a durable black bumper. Note how the overhangs are tight, which is to maximize space.

Large glass panels & unique storage

The upcoming SUV’s patent images (via Fiskerati) suggest it will be available with unique six-spoke wheels. Other patent images (via Fiskerati) indicate it has larger quarter glass panels that form a wraparound look along with the back glass. However, these pictures might not be the final design, as they are from a utility patent application. Their purpose is to detail a drawer, which is probably the ‘Houdini trunk,’ included at the front, between the headlamps, and also at the rear, between the combination lamps.

The Fisker Houdini trunk will be an alternative to conventional rear cargo hatches. The company revealed this feature in an announcement on June 8, 2022, and it could share more information about the same closer to the unveiling of the concept. It has been engineered to allow users easy access to it even in tight spaces, the CEO told The Verge, published in January 2023.

Fisker says that the Pear will be a compact EV offering seats for five people, intuitive controls, sporty driving, and clever storage. The compact dimensions would make the Pear suitable for the narrow roads of European cities and the crowded streets of Asia. Apart from the USA and Canada, Fisker is considering launching the two-box design in China and Europe.

According to a previous Autocar report, Fisker has described the Pear as the type of urban car Apple would build for Los Angeles, London, and other megacities. Roughly 4,500 mm (177.2 in.) in length, as stated on fiskerinc.com/reserve, the Fisker Pear isn’t an urban car like the Fiat 500e or Renault Zoe. The boxy shape, short overhangs, and oversized wheels will likely give it a great street presence.

Interior

In The Verge interview published on January 4, 2023, Henrik Fisker said that the company used a simplistic design approach for the Fisker Pear’s interior to keep costs low. Therefore, expect a clean dashboard, center console & door trims in the cabin.

At the Q4 2021 and CY 2021 earnings call, Fisker indicated that the Pear would be futuristic in both form and function. He hesitates to use ‘car’ and prefers terming it a ‘mobility device.’ That’s because it looks so different, the way it will function, and some of its innovative storage features.

The Fisker Pear concept (pictured below) is a glimpse of what’s to come. The production version will likely be normal, but an idea of the layout is available from the teaser.

The wraparound windscreen provides a commanding view of the road ahead, while the low-set beltline and windows open up an expansive view of the surroundings. The dashboard and center console seem to have lit surfaces with a minimalist design. The dash offers plenty of storage area, while the center console floats down towards the front in an unusual fashion. A large panoramic roof will double as a solar roof that extends the driving range.

“Reinventing the car as we know it”

In an interview with Wallpaper, Fisker said that the Pear is about “reinventing the car as we know it.” Designed for urban mobility and young people, Fisker expects the new entry-level car to generate buzz and win hearts across the globe and become an iconic model like the VW Beetle and the MINI Cooper. The odds of releasing a truly iconic, worldwide classic is perhaps one in ten thousand, but Fisker is committed to designing a car that’ll be remembered for decades.

The Pear will be a revolutionary electric vehicle that won’t fit into any existing segment. The exterior design will feature new lighting technology and a wraparound front windscreen inspired by a glider plane glass canopy, enhancing frontal vision.

Henrik Fisker, Chairman and CEO, Fisker (on May 12, 2022)

Features

In the interview with Fiskerati in August 2022, Fisker revealed that the wraparound front windscreen is a manufacturing challenge, and the company is slightly changing its curvature as a solution.

Fisker had revealed (during the Q1 2022 earnings conference call) that the Pear will boast the company’s next-gen connectivity, ADAS functionality, and OTA platform capabilities. A “discontented” and “lower cost” version is under consideration for emerging markets.

This vehicle is so different in how it looks, how it’s going to function, some of the features, some of the way you store things in this vehicle has never been seen before. And that’s not something we want to give away to the competition anytime soon quite frankly.

Henrik Fisker, Chairman and CEO, Fisker (Q4 2021 and CY 2021 earnings call on February 16, 2022)

Specifications

Platform

On March 30, 2021, Fisker talked about the Fisker Project Pear at the Bank of America 2021 Virtual Global Automotive Summit. He indicated that the EV resulting from this project would be like no other car in the market today, ICE or electric. During its Q4 and FY2022 results announcement on February 27, 2023, Fisker said it is using a “truly revolutionary” E/E (electrical/electronics) architecture with just a few central computer units internally called the Blade Computer in the Pear.

The way you pay for that (urban) mobility is going to be different with this vehicle. Even the way you order options of this vehicle is going to be different. Even the way you load this vehicle is gonna be different. Everything about this vehicle will be different! Even the size of this vehicle – there is no vehicle on the planet that has the same width, length, and height.

Henrik Fisker, Chairman & CEO, Fisker (at Bank of America 2021 Virtual Global Automotive Summit)

SLV1, a new platform developed in-house, will underpin the Fisker Pear, the CEO revealed during the company’s Q2 2022 earnings conference call. Later, this platform will spawn two additional models. According to Autocar, SLV1 will be a cost-effective steel platform. Fisker will limit the number of components as much as possible in the Pear.

To keep production costs low, Fisker went with traditional steel for the Pear’s platform and body shell. While it’s heavier than aluminum, steel is also easier and less expensive to repair if damaged, Fisker told The Verge.

During Fisker’s Q1 2022 earnings conference call on May 4, 2022, the company’s CEO said that the new platform would be very cost-efficient. The three models built on it, the other two of which come out successively in 2025 and 2026, will give the company an annual sales volume of a million units in 2027. The CEO revealed to The Verge that there was keen interest from other manufacturers to share the Pear’s (and Ocean’s) platform.

It (the new platform) will be fairly low cost — I should say really low cost to manufacture, we are able to take a lot of parts complexity out of the platform, concentrate on spending money on high technology, and really interesting consumer features that’s never been seen before.

Henrik Fisker, Chairman & CEO, Fisker (Q1 2022 earnings conference call on May 4, 2022)

Hyper Range option

In an interview with Fiskerati in August 2022 (watch on YouTube), Fisker suggested that most customers of the Pear may not need a long range. These people may already have a larger, long-range vehicle like the Ocean, and could buy the Pear for city driving. However, the company will offer an optional long-range or Hyper Range battery pack in the Pear, Fisker confirmed. He also said that “super-fast-charging” will be available in the urban electric car.

Fisker is targeting a range of well over 300 miles for the Pear. The company is yet to finalize its battery supplier, Fisker said during the company’s Q2 2022 earnings conference call. The company hasn’t ruled out having more than one supplier to secure its business from unanticipated risks. The company wants to source locally manufactured batteries and is considering a joint venture for the same, Fisker indicated during the call.

Variants for commercial applications

In The Verge interview cited earlier, Henrik Fisker said that the company is looking beyond sales to just private buyers. Instead, the Pear is to be compatible among value-added services such as car-sharing, ride-hailing, and even food delivery, the CEO told the American publication.

Release Date

Fisker Pear deliveries in the U.S. will begin in 2024. By February 24, 2023, Fisker had over 5,600 reservations for the Pear, the company revealed during its Q4 and FY2022 results announcement. Prototype testing started towards the end of the 2022 and the world premiere is expected in the second half of 2023.

Price & Production

Fisker plans to launch the Pear at a competitive starting price of USD 29,900 (excl. taxes and incentives). To achieve the low targeted prices and bring the product to the market on time, Fisker is outsourcing the production to Foxconn, which will make the car in Ohio, USA.

Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd.) is a Taiwanese contract manufacturer that manufactures Apple products. Fisker and its contract manufacturer expect to produce no less than 250,000 units of the model a year after a ramp-up period.

On the Apple-like approach

Henrik Fisker trusts Foxconn just as Apple did when it started iPhone production, Germany’s Welt am Sonntag reported on March 26, 2023. The company doesn’t own a production facility at the moment, but in the long term, it may have a factory of its own, he added. It aims to sell one million vehicles by 2027, and to reach that goal, it will need a globally distributed production network.

Fisker had said that its tie-up with Foxconn for Project Pear “unlocks sub-$30k price point for a “no-compromises” EV.

TopElectricSUV says

While Tesla’s budget electric car project has seen a delay, Fisker has set out to create a clean mobility revolution with the Pear. With a funky shape, a space-focused interior, rapid charging, and a range of 300+ miles, the Fisker Pear, at least on paper, is a promising urban EV. The vehicle can also put Fisker on the map with its de-contented version and anticipated global sales.

Fisker Pear FAQs

Featured Image Source: Instagram/henrikfisker.