Fisker files for bankruptcy

Fisker has filed for bankruptcy, as the competent court in the US state of Delaware announced. Henrik Fisker fought to the end, and now assets of about 500 million to one billion dollars are offset by liabilities between 100 million dollars and 500 million dollars. The drama had been brewing for some time: Henrik Fisker warned as early as the end of February 2024 that the company's existence was in jeopardy without fresh money. Subsequently, there were talks with Nissan, as Reuters allegedly learned from insiders, but they also came to nothing.

Another insider told us that Fisker himself had no blame for the failure this time: His wife managed the finances internally within the family, and he outsourced all processes that cost money, such as development and production, as far as possible.In an interview in the summer of 2023, he told us:

"Fisker itself employs just over 1,000 employees, which is nothing for a company that produces tens of thousands of cars a year. And it keeps us lean and flexible."

At that time, Henrik Fisker still had big plans: In addition to the Ocean, the compact car "Pear" and the pickup Alaska were scheduled, and by 2027 he wanted to build one million cars a year. However, the SUV model Ocean came to market later than planned due to problems with suppliers (again, we know from an insider: a company that manufactured door interior trim went bankrupt). After all, without door trim, you can't actually deliver a car. Additionally, there were too many software errors and some technical problems at the beginning. Nevertheless, production started in Graz at Magna Steyr more or less according to plan. In total, about 11,000 Fisker Ocean were reportedly produced, but at the beginning of 2024, Magna stopped contract manufacturing and Fisker only sold stock vehicles. Many models are still parked behind the Motorworld in Munich, and we saw a full yard in Vienna as well.

Officially, a total of 10,142 Ocean were produced in 2023

Officially, 10,142 Ocean were reportedly produced in 2023, but only 4,929 of them were delivered to customers. Fisker himself declared the originally planned direct sales following the Tesla model in the USA and Europe as largely failed and has been trying to gain dealers since January 2024 to have a broader presence. He repeatedly revised his sales targets downwards: in 2024, he ultimately planned to sell 20,000 to 22,000 cars, but production was stopped in mid-March to save money. Magna is said to have since written off the Fisker facilities.