Fisker, led by Danish designer and entrepreneur Henrik Fisker, is forced to stop production of its only model, the Ocean crossover, for six weeks, at Magna Steyr plant in Graz, Austria, because it has nothing to pay the bills.
We already covered the precarious position of the Fisker company in early March, when it became known that Henrik Fisker was looking for a major partner for his company, capable of plugging his rapidly growing financial holes. Fisker's net loss for the past year widened from $547 million to $762 million, while available cash on its accounts fell from $737 million to $325 million. Now, as Reuters reports, Fisker has only $120 million left on its balance sheet; with such capital, it simply makes no sense to continue paying the Magna Steyr plant to produce new cars.
Production of the Fisker Ocean electric crossover at the Magna Steyr plant in Graz, Austria
Let us recall that production of the Ocean electric crossover in Graz started in November 2022, and it is still far behind schedule: last year 10,142 units were produced, while the original plan for 2023 envisaged the production of 42,400 cars. Only 4,700 crossovers were shipped to customers in 2023, which means that unsold or not ready for shipment cars are still gathering dust in warehouses. In January, the Magna Steyr plant did not produce Fisker Ocean crossovers; from the beginning of February to March 15, about 1000 units were manufactured. Apparently that's all.
The production shutdown for six weeks is a consequence of Fisker's insolvency: the company is behind on interest payments on its debts and is now trying to restructure these debts. Henrik Fisker's attempts to conclude a life-saving partnership have not yet been successful: according to rumors, the main candidate is Nissan.
Fisker Ocean
Nissan has not officially commented on the potential deal with Fisker, but last week it quite officially announced the preparation of an alliance with Honda. Fisker last week began consultations with lawyers about bankruptcy — this news has further plunged Fisker shares, due to its junk rating, the company is about to be delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, which will make it much more difficult for it to find potential investors.
In short, things are rapidly heading towards bankruptcy, unless a miracle happens and Nissan or some other large company announces its readiness to enter into a partnership with Fisker in the coming weeks. Given the ongoing trend of a global slowdown in demand for electric vehicles, selling a sinking electric vehicle company will be difficult. Fisker's promising lineup also consists exclusively of electric vehicles — the Alaska pickup truck on the Ocean platform, the inexpensive compact crossover Pear and the luxurious coupe-convertible Ronin.
We would like to remind you that for Henrik Fisker, his current registered company is already the second in a row. The previous one was called Fisker Automotive, which produced the spectacular Karma hybrid sedan, but filed for bankruptcy in 2013 due to difficulties with financing and problems with product quality. In 2014, Fisker Automotive was bought by Chinese component manufacturer Wanxiang and renamed it Karma Automotive — this company still exists today, but no longer has anything to do with Fisker.