Fisker files for bankruptcy: end of the road for EV start-up?

Fisker, the EV brand created by prominent designer Henrik Fisker, has filed for bankruptcy, ending a lengthy bid to secure funding that would have kept the fledging car manufacturer in business.

The troubled start-up, which made a loss of more than $450million (£355m) in the final quarter of 2023 alone, had been in talks with a number of potential investors – including, it was widely rumoured, Nissan, which could have used Fisker’s technologies to fast-track an electric pick-up truck to market.

These talks collapsed, however, prompting trading in Fisker’s shares on the New York Stock Exchange to be suspended. The company paused production of its first model, the Ocean SUV, which was subcontracted to Magna in Austria – and also froze the development process of the planned smaller, cheaper sibling, the Pear.

Fisker had slashed prices on its Ocean model by up to £15,000, with the caveat that the company might not be able to provide after-sales support for any of its vehicles. It actually made just over 10,000 Oceans in 2023 – less than a quarter of the projected number – and fewer than half of those cars were delivered to customers.

Now Fisker has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, whereby a court oversees a reorganisation of the firm’s assets – likely, for example, to include any remaining unsold vehicles – and liabilities. A company statement said: “We are proud of our achievements, and we have put thousands of Fisker Ocean SUVs in customers’ hands in both North American and Europe. But like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic headwinds that have impacted our ability to operate efficiently.”

The move marks the second time than founder Henrik Fisker has seen his car company file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. An earlier project that spawned the Karma plug-in hybrid saloon collapsed in 2013.

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