In May of last year, electric vehicle maker Fisker announced that the first customer had taken delivery of the brand-new Fisker Ocean all-electric SUV – lauded as the highest range vehicle available on the European market, with 440 miles per charge. Fisker also claimed that the Ocean had the lowest carbon footprint of any electric SUV on the market.
A lot of differentiators in a crowded market, to be sure, but unfortunately for Fisker… since then, it appears things have gotten worse – not better.
In an announcement outlining its preliminary financial results for 2023 Q4 and year-end, Fisker outlined some dark prospects. Despite increasing its quarterly revenue, the carmaker’s gross margin is -35%. The mounting losses have led CEO Henrik Fisker to call 2023 “a challenging year” and reveal more details of the company’s plan to pivot from direct sales to a dealer network, hopefully in an effort to unload the inventory it's sitting on after producing about double the number of Oceans delivered.
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Fisker also revealed that it was in negotiations with “a large automaker” in the hopes of shoring up some investment funding and leveraging North American manufacturing capabilities.
And hopefully those negotiations go quickly: Fisker is casting substantial doubt on its “ability to continue” without an infusion of cash, saying it has insufficient resources to last for the next 12 months.To that end, Fisker says it will cut expenses by laying off some 15% of its workforce and adds that, if the funding efforts aren’t fully realized, that more layoffs could be on the horizon, as could cuts in development and production – a possible death knell.
So who is this mystery potential partner? And will Fisker be successful in establishing the deal it needs to survive and support a goal of 22,000 vehicles sold in 2024? Henrik Fisker says the company has “good reason to be optimistic” after emerging success with its new dealer-centric selling model, but that “we prepare for another difficult year.”
