In 2016, automobile designer Henrik Fisker created the Fisker electric vehicle company.
There was a period when Fisker compared herself to Apple and planned to take a leading position in the car market. But the release of the first car ruined all the company’s plans.
Now production has stopped, and Fisker may go bankrupt in the near future.
Short description
Where does the hype around Fisker come from?
First electric car company
Why is Fisker Ocean criticized?
What happened after the conclusion of the MKBHD review
How Fisker came to the brink of bankruptcy
Why Fisker customers are furious
What’s next for Fisker?
Where does the hype around Fisker come from?
Fisker Karma
In 2014, two years before the creation of Fisker, Henrik Fisker sold his other company, Fisker Automotive, to Wanxiang Group. Fisker Automotive was later renamed Karma Automotive.
Fisker Automotive was founded in 2007 and has since introduced one car – the Fisker Karma. It was one of the first luxury hybrids on the market. Its representatives were present in 2008, production started at the end of 2011.
Sales are terribly low. By March 2012, the company produced 2,450 cars; production was stopped in the third quarter of the same year. This happened after the supplier’s liability went bankrupt, causing the cost of producing the machine to rise.
In 2016, just after founding the new Fisker, its founder said he planned to release modern and affordable electric crossovers. At that time and now this is a very promising niche.
Fisker was able to achieve success despite the unfortunate experience with his unsuccessful start.
Apart from honest car companies, Henrik Fisker is known as a very talented designer.. He began working at BMW, where the concept of the Bavarian manufacturer’s first electric car, the E1, was created.
BMW Z8
BMW X5
He also tested the design of the BMW Z8, a very expensive roadster that is now highly sought after by collectors. In the late nineties, Fisker became one of the main designers of the first BMW X5 crossover, which quickly gained popularity in the market and created a new class of luxury crossovers.
In 2001, Fisker became chief designer of Aston Martin.. He tested the designs of the Aston Martin DB9 and the Aston Martin V8 Vantage. The latter was named Top Gear’s Coolest Car of the Year and Car of the Year with the Best Exhaust Sound.
Aston Martin DB9
Aston Martin V8 Vantage
In 2007, Fisker even managed to work at Tesla, making the first sketches of the Model S.
With such a long list of credits, Fisker had a lot of protection from the fall side and clients waiting to see what he would deliver.
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First electric car company
In 2022, the Fisker Ocean was introduced. It’s a fully refined mid-size crossover with a claimed range of 580 km and a 0-100 km/h time of 4 seconds.
Its modern chip design features a solar panel on the lid, a rotating center screen and a low-slung window in the trunk. In terms of its dimensions, the Ocean is larger than its main competitor, the Tesla Model Y.
Fisker does not have its own production. It outsourced production of the car to Austrian company Magna Steyr to reduce costs. As a result of the agreement, Fisker received a platform for electric vehicles, and Magna Steyr received a 6% stake in the manufacturer.
Fisker Ocean will begin offering itself to first customers in 2023. It cost from 38 thousand to 62 thousand dollars, depending on the version and configuration.
When only problems were sold, few people paid attention to the car, so 2023 passed relatively quietly. The real problems are in 2024 and are still ongoing.
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Why is Fisker Ocean criticized?
In February of this year, blogger MKBHD posted a review of the Fisker Ocean. The video is called “This is the Cheapest Car I’ve Ever Reviewed.”
Half of the MKBHD roller addresses the negative aspects of the machine. For example, she has a solar battery on the roof, but there is no way to configure its operation in the system and see statistics on the accumulated energy. There is no mention of a solar panel in the car at all.
The car has a Boost function that briefly increases engine power to accelerate faster. However, it can be used 500 times, after which the system blocks the option.
A more serious problem is with Auto Hold not working and holding the car on a hill. While the driver holds the brake, the car stands still, but if you release the pedal, it will roll down.
In addition, errors on the dashboard constantly light up, the camera periodically does not work, the phone connection via Bluetooth does not always work, the button on the key sometimes needs to be pressed several times in order for the car to open or close.
The center armrest contains a small folding table that takes up a lot of space. There is no glove box in an electric car. Instead, there is a pull-out table for the front passenger.
Problems with the software and the title took their toll. Although MKBHD noted that he liked the design, seats, space in the cabin and the driving experience, software glitches outweighed all the positives.
MKBHD initially asked Fisker to review Ocean, but was turned down. He then went to the dealer and took the car for a test drive.
Fisker somehow found out that MKBHD was preparing a review and asked him to wait a few days until a major update was released that fixed many of the problems.
The blogger refused to wait for an update because at the time of filming the video machine had been in stock for a little over six months, which means that real buyers faced all the dangers.
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What happened after the conclusion of the MKBHD review
The MKBHD review currently has 5.4 million views. This is the most popular video on his car channel.
Following the release of the video, George Saliba, the owner of a Mitsubishi dealer who used the Fisker Ocean blogger, posted a recording of a conversation on TikTok with a man who identified himself as a senior Fisker service engineer.
We have a client who we thought would buy you a car and he blew up on social media. We’re trying to find him.
Senior Service Engineer Fisker
He also added that MKBHD recall attracted the attention of the company’s senior management. The engineer requested the blogger’s contact information and the VIN code of all Fisker Oceans sold.
Saliba responded by saying that the same Fisker Ocean from the review belongs to him, and he gave the car to MKBHD.
The engineer said that he was looking for MKBHD to install new firmware on his car, but since it was not his car, he sent a specialist to Saliba.
The video received 3.4 million views and its popularity led to even more people watching the MKBHD test drive.
At the beginning of April, MKBHD posted another review of the Fisker Ocean, but with updated firmware. Fisker herself turned on the machine during the test.
Interestingly, the new firmware is configured manually because they cannot update online due to an internal machine error.
Fisker has fixed many issues, including the key, shutdown, Bluetooth, solar panels, and Auto Hold. But some bugs remained and new ones were added to them. For example, after an update, the central firmware screen loads about a minute after each time you turn on the machine.
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How Fisker came to the brink of bankruptcy
After the release of the MKBHD video, sales of the crossover plummeted. The company sold 200 cars in March. The release of the update did not improve the security situation in any way.
In addition, the problem with the crossover rolling away attracted the attention of US authorities. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating based on complaints from owners. In one case, the car’s rollback led to an accident.
At the same time, the company is facing serious financial problems. According to UK data for 2023, Fisker passed almost 10,200 electric vehicles, but only shipped 4,900 to dealers. Fisker said there was a cash crunch and was hoping to get investment from a “major automaker.”.
In 2023, the company received $904.9 million for operating and investing activities. These are small numbers by the standards of large automakers, but for a startup this is a lot of money. As of April 15, Fisker had just $53 million.
To cut costs, the company suspended production and laid off 425 people between January 1 and April 19, 2024. This is 27% of the entire state. Now the company has 1,135 people left.
The New York Stock Exchange stopped trading in Fisker shares at the end of March. They were trading at $0.09. In 2020, when the company went public, shares were priced at $10. Also in March, Fisker failed to pay $8.4 million in dividends to its shareholders.
On April 23, the company announced that it would file for bankruptcy within 30 days if it could not obtain relief from creditors or find other financing.
To make money quickly, Fisker slashed Ocean prices by nearly half. The base version now costs $24,999, although it recently sold for $38,999. The top-end Extreme trim has dropped in price from $61,499 to $37,499.
But it did not help. Buyers do not risk giving money to a manufacturer that is on the verge of bankruptcy.
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Why Fisker customers are furious
The sharp price reduction thus affected current Fisker customers; their cars became twice as expensive.
In addition, they also irritate the defects of electric vehicles. And if the company goes bankrupt, it is unclear how the cars will be serviced and how updates will be released.
If Fisker files for bankruptcy, he may be required to support cars that have already been produced. But here another problem arises. Fisker has only five dealers left in the United States, so Ocean owners in outlying states will have trouble getting the car repaired.
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What’s next for Fisker?
Henrik Fisker
Henrik Fisker was able to attract investment to open another company only thanks to his name and reputation. But, despite the fact that the new Fisker repeats the fate of Fisker Automotive, it is unlikely that Fisker will be able to save his company.
He was unlucky because his company was faced with a number of problems at once: bad software, unreliable suppliers, low sales, which collapsed after the MKBHD review. At the same time, many clients note that if it weren’t for the buggy software, they would be happy.
Most likely, Fisker will face bankruptcy. This is a sad story because in the modern world there are not many examples of a car company being represented that already has a name in the industry.
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Source: Iphones RU
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
