A recall only means something in the United States. The four recalls on the Fisker Ocean are registered with the NHTSA, the road safety regulator there, and that is the only place with a way to enforce them. Canada has a recall on the books too, but no enforcement mechanism behind it, which puts Canadian owners in the same position as everybody else. Everywhere else there is no recall at all.
The faults are the same wherever the car is, so the work is worth doing regardless. This article covers the stated route in the United States, how to get the same work done anywhere else, and what to know about either before you start.
What a recall means when the maker is gone
Fisker Inc. is not there to run a recall campaign, write to owners or pay a dealer network. That does not mean the recalls evaporated. They are registered, they describe real faults, and the work they call for is still the work the car needs.
It is a fair question why they exist at all against a company that no longer does. When Fisker went into bankruptcy, obligations were sorted, argued over and in some cases written off. The recalls were kept inside that process rather than disappearing with the company, which is why they are still on the register.
What changed is who does the work and how you arrange it. Nobody is going to contact you.
The four recalls, and what closes them
Between them, the four come down to three pieces of work:
- running FiskerOS 2.2, which closes the software side of it
- replacing the water pump
- replacing the original door handles
The software portion is the same operating system step described in how to get the Marlin update. It is installed by a workshop with a SURF tool, and it is worth doing on its own merits, whether or not you care about recalls.
One of the four is closed by software, and here the same version number does not mean the same thing in both places. In Europe the brake fix shipped inside FiskerOS 2.1, so a European car on 2.1 or later already has it. In North America it did not. Canada runs the same software as the United States, so a car in either needs 2.2 to close that one, and being on 2.1 does not cover it.
Getting it done in the United States
This is the only place with a stated process, so use it.
The water pump is recall work rather than a shopping trip, and it does not go through the service points list. Write to oceanrecalls@fiskerinc.com. That one address covers the whole programme: the water pump, arranging the FiskerOS 2.2 update, and the question of what gets reimbursed.
The door handles work differently from what most people expect. Under a recall they are not replaced as a matter of course: they are tested first, and replacement is decided from the result. Where a handle is replaced, it is replaced with the same version the car was built with. That is what a recall is for, putting the car back to the specification it was approved on.
Getting it done anywhere else
Outside the United States there is no recall to invoke, and in Canada there is one with nothing behind it. That is a fact about jurisdiction, not about your car. The same faults exist and the same three remedies apply. You arrange them yourself, as ordinary repairs.
In practice that means the operating system through a workshop with a SURF tool, and the water pump and door handles bought and fitted like any other part. Where those parts come from is at the end of this article.
If your car is on an older operating system, that is not necessarily something an owner failed to do. FiskerOS 2.2 has not been available everywhere at the same time, and a great many Oceans are on earlier versions for reasons that were never in their owners’ hands.
How to check your own car
Regardless of location, when buying an Ocean you can ask the dealer or a service provider to validate the production date of the pump on the car, or provide paperwork to show that it has been completed.
For the software side, the OceanLink Pro app reads an ECU version report out of the car, so you can see exactly where it stands. Fisker Ocean software versions explained covers how to read it. If you do not have OceanLink Pro yet, click the settings gear icon on your infotainment screen, then the software tab. You should see the current software version listed (for example 2.2) and/or the ICC version. Anything containing 1.149 for the ICC version is sufficient to confirm OS 2.2.
The part nobody puts in a recall notice
The process is awkward even where it exists. Ask oceanrecalls@fiskerinc.com what is reimbursed before you spend anything, and be prepared for the answer that you pay first and claim afterwards. Outside the United States the question does not arise: there is nothing to reimburse.
There is also the door handle. A recall restores the car to the specification it was approved on, so a handle replaced under recall comes back as the same version, weakness included. Chevalier, who made the original, has since produced an improved one. Buying that sits outside the recall entirely, and no reimbursement applies to it.
So there is a second route, for owners who would rather pay and have it done than argue about who owes what, and for everybody outside the United States who has no choice anyway. Parts come from Tsunami in North America and Tidal Wave in Europe, and the service points list shows who will fit them.
Worth stating plainly on a page that also explains what a recall gives you for nothing: neither shop is an ordinary commercial distributor. Tidal Wave is owned by a group of Ocean owners, and Tsunami is owned by the Fisker Owners Association and run independently of it. Where to get Fisker Ocean parts lists the other sources too, including the ones we have nothing to do with.
If there is no workshop near you that will take an Ocean at all, getting your local workshop onto the SURF tool is how other owners have fixed that.