The darkest irony of this saga is that Biden failed to save the original Fisker as well as this latest iteration.
The electric-vehicle (EV) company Fisker appears to have run out of road as it’s now hiring restructuring advisers to aid the company with what is thought to be a bankruptcy filing. Fisker, a resurrected EV group that was arguably the first to build a true luxury experience for those in the market for an electrified saloon (Fisker Karma), also engineered interesting-if-impractical components such as a solar roof. Unfortunately for them, the company never got around to making many vehicles. With rates no longer friendly to money-pit passion projects, there’s every reason to believe a few more car companies will join Fisker before long.
Sean McLain and Soma Biswas report for the Wall Street Journal:
Fisker is one of a cohort of once-highflying EV startups that went public at the beginning of the decade, many through special-purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, that helped fast-track their market debuts. Their rise also coincided with a surge of investor enthusiasm for companies that could potentially follow in Tesla’s footsteps and break into the highly competitive auto industry.
Instead, the companies have struggled with the complexities of mass manufacturing and, more recently, with sputtering demand for battery-powered vehicles from American car buyers.
Fisker delivered its first vehicles to U.S. buyers in June, just as worrying signs of a slowdown in sales growth were starting to emerge. The company cut its forecast for demand twice last year and lowered prices, citing “competitive realities.”
If Fisker files for bankruptcy protection, it will be the second collapse of a car company founded by former BMW and Aston Martin car designer, Henrik Fisker. The first company, Fisker Automotive, filed for bankruptcy in 2013.
The darkest irony of this saga is that Biden failed to save the original Fisker as well as this latest iteration (despite the Inflation Reduction Act’s $7,500 tax credit gambit). The early Fisker was supposed to revitalize a shuttered General Motors plant in Wilmington, Del., but ended up defaulting on the $192 million in loans from the Obama/Biden White House through the Department of Energy. At the time, Biden claimed the company would create a couple thousand jobs and be “a roadmap for all we can accomplish if everyone works together.” What’s more, Hunter Biden owned a Fisker Karma. The New York Post reported in 2022 that “Hunter Biden’s Karma was bought from a New Jersey dealership in 2014 with $142,300 provided by Kazakhstani banking oligarch Kenes “Kenges” Rakishev, the Journal said, citing bank statements it reviewed and a former Biden associate questioned by prosecutors.” He’d eventually trade the Fisker for a Porsche — a 10/10 choice on the Hunter Biden decision-making scale.
Maybe that’s the lesson: Bad cars can’t win even with nepotism. The market is too competitive and demands logistic genius to sell at a scale even to have a shot at profitability. Porsche makes brilliant cars for a decent margin and sells them by the truckload. Toyota makes the world’s cars for thin margins and sells them by the millions. Fisker sold environmentalists a bridge.