Back in May Henrik Fisker promised the first prototypes of his company’s Pear baby SUV would be ready by the end of the year. The Pear will slot below the Ocean and be built at a former GM plant in Ohio by Foxconn at a rate of around 250,000 units per year starting in 2024. “Pear”, by the way, stands for “Personal Electric Automotive Revolution” and the promised US$ 29,900 price will definitely ruffle some feathers in the EV market, particularly as its “made-in-USA” status means it will still qualify for federal tax credits.
The brief video hosted on the Fiskerati
website shows the Pear crossing a bridge in Los Angeles dressed in a green
camouflage wrap and rolling on huge, fluorescent green seven-spoke alloy
wheels. And the same test car also appears on a couple of still shots on the
@fiskerwhisperers Instagram account, giving us a much clearer look at the
bargain baby EV.
The footage and images show a clear family
resemblance between the Pear and its Ocean big brother, which goes on sale next
year, including the narrow strip of LED lights on the nose and equally slim
black plastic wheel arch extensions. But the Pear’s roofline seems to taper
giving a sportier look, while the rear window is more upright, which should
mean it still has the impressive trunk volume Fisker has promised. And though
it’s hard to be sure how much faith we should put in the side window design in
the rear quarter panel given how much disguise the car is wearing, it seems
clear that the final window shape will be different from the stepped shape seen
on the Ocean. The blacked-out windows don’t give us a chance to see inside the
prototype either, but Fisker has previously released rendered images showing a
minimalist cabin in which most controls are located inside a floating
touchscreen.
The Pear will be offered with rear- and
all-wheel drive and two battery packs including a Hyper Range variant with over 499 km of range. It will also offer a SolarSky panoramic roof whose
solar panels collect the sun’s energy and recharge the vehicle while parked.
