2024 Fisker Pear: $US30,000 electric-car prototype spotted in LA

The Fisker Pear – an electric car which its makers claim will cost less than $US30,000 ($AU44,700) when it launches in 2024 – has been filmed while undergoing pre-production testing in Los Angeles, California.

First teased by Fisker Inc. in February 2022, the Pear – an acronym for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution – is scheduled to be the US electric-car start-up’s second model after the Ocean, which went into production in Austria last month.

Fisker fan group Fiskerati uploaded a short video to YouTube which shows a prototype Pear driving around the streets of Los Angeles, about 30km away from the car-maker’s Manhattan Beach headquarters.

In the brief clip, the Fisker Pear can be seen wearing green and black camouflage, with the wrap carefully placed on the back portion of the rear doors, quarter windows and rear glass to disguise its design.

According to Fisker, Pear production is slated to take place at a factory in Lordstown, Ohio – part-owned by Apple iPhone maker Foxconn – with the company targeting more than 250,000 deliveries annually.

Fisker has previously claimed the Pear will be priced from $US29,000 ($AU43,200) excluding taxes when it launches in 2024, offered with a choice of single and dual electric motors, as well as two battery packs – delivering up to 500km of driving range.

If the Fisker name sounds familiar, the Fisker Karma was one of the first mass-produced plug-in hybrids, although it was manufactured by a different company than the one which plans to build the Pear.

Designed by flamboyant Danish car designer and entrepreneur Henrik Fisker – famous for sports cars such as the BMW Z8, Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage – the Karma was powered by a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine and two electric motors.  

According to a 2013 report by news agency Reuters, approximately 2450 Fisker Karmas were built between 2011 and 2012 before the car-maker’s battery supplier – Chinese company A123 Systems – went bankrupt, ending production of the plug-in hybrid.

While Fisker Automotive was renamed Karma Automotive by the Wanxiang Group – its new Chinese owners – Mr Fisker retained the trademark for his eponymous company, founding Fisker Inc. in 2016. 

After unveiling the Fisker Ocean at the 2020 Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, the first production model rolled off the production line in Austria last month, with initial North American deliveries scheduled to take place early next year.