Fisker has received confirmation from both the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirming that it will be able to sell emissions credits to supplement the income it makes from its first all-electric SUV, the Ocean.
Both California and the wider United States charge automakers a fine for failing to meet emissions standards. However, they can offset this with credits earned by selling zero-emissions vehicles.
Fisker says that the Ocean One launch edition and the Ocean Extreme will each generate 4 ZEV credits, the maximum offered by CARB. Meanwhile, as part of NHTSA’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, the automaker will make 395 credits per vehicle sold.
Read: Fisker Ocean Extreme Has 360 Miles Of Range, U.S. Deliveries Start Later This Month
Since Fisker has no over-polluting internal combustion vehicles to compensate for, it will sell the credits to other automakers. It said today that it already has an agreement lined up to sell its credits to a major automaker at “competitive rates,” though it has not clarified who will purchase them.
The buyers tend to be larger, more established automakers such as General Motors and Stellantis, both of which were forced to pay hundreds of millions in fines to CARB recently for past infractions.
The emissions credit system has the potential to be a lucrative revenue stream for EV startups that can capitalize on it. Tesla has been the poster child for emissions credit, earning $1.5 billion from the scheme in 2020.
However, that revenue relies on an automaker selling vehicles, which Fisker hasn’t started to do yet, though it will soon. The startup celebrated selling its first Ocean in Europe in May, and sales in the U.S. are set to start on the week of June 19.
The launch edition of the SUV, the Fisker Ocean One, will have a starting price of $68,889 and will be able to go 360 miles (579 km) per charge. The automaker plans to release a more affordable version of the SUV at a later date with a starting price of $37,499.
