The Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration has opened a second investigation into EV startup Fisker’s Ocean SUV, after the company obtained 4 complaints concerning the automobile rolling away unexpectedly, together with one harm.
The corporate tells TechCrunch it’s “fully cooperating” with the protection company.
The brand new probe comes simply one month after NHTSA’s Workplace of Defects Investigation started investigating complaints of sudden lack of braking efficiency. Fisker claims that downside was resolved with a software program replace that went out to automobiles in December.
Fisker has had issues with the Ocean because it first began delivering the SUV final yr. Homeowners have complained to the corporate for months concerning the SUV abruptly dropping energy, issues getting out and in of the automobile, bother shifting into gear and the SUV’s hood flying up, TechCrunch revealed final week.
The 4 complaints NHTSA references describe eventualities the place the homeowners had bother shifting into or out of park. One proprietor in Pennsylvania claims that their Ocean typically shifts into impartial as a substitute of park, inflicting the SUV to roll backwards. On one event in December, this proprietor says they exited the SUV when it began to roll away and the open driver’s facet door knocked them to the bottom. The proprietor says they have been capable of “get up, jump in the car, and stop it before it hit another car.”
NHTSA’s ODI can open 4 ranges of an investigation: Defect Petition, Preliminary Analysis, Recall Question and Engineering Evaluation. Just like the braking probe, this investigation into the rollaway complaints is assessed as a preliminary analysis, which the company says it tries to finish inside eight months. NHTSA says the aim of the preliminary analysis is to “determine the scope and severity of the potential problem and to fully assess the potential safety-related issues.”
