CHAPTER 11 – It was well known that Fisker was not sailing in calm waters from a financial point of view. Just a couple of months ago, the American start-up had drastically cut the prices of the electric SUV Fisker Ocean (in the pictures, here the news), with the hope of encouraging customers to buy his cars and put some cash in the now empty coffers. But now Fisker raises the white flag and announces the failure, reporting estimated assets of between $500 million and $1 billion and liabilities of between $100 and $500 million. With the declaration of bankruptcy (Chapter 11) the company is protected from creditors, while the US court in charge develops a plan to repay them.
MARKET OBSTACLES – In a statement, Fisker said that “like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market obstacles and macroeconomic issues that have impacted our ability to operate efficiently.” Thus, after evaluating the options available to the company, “we have determined that proceeding with the sale of our assets is the most viable path for the company”. The start-up has assured that with the bankruptcy court it will adopt the usual procedures to ensure the continuation of its reduced operations, such as the payment of its employees, maintaining some customer programs and compensating some vendors. There production of Ocean, interrupted since March at the Magna Steyr plant in Austria, is however not destined to start again.
THE SECOND FISKER TO FAIL – At the beginning of March, an agreement with Nissan seemed close, which seemed ready to invest over 400 million in Fisker (we wrote about it here), but things didn’t go as the company leaders hoped. And so, 8 years after its foundation, Fisker Inc. closes its doors: was founded by Henrik Fisker – former car designer for BMW and Aston Martin – and his wife Geeta Gupta-Fisker, with the aim of becoming Tesla’s main competitor. Curiously, Henrik Fisker had already tried to start his own business, founding Fisker Automotive in 2007, which had briefly tried to enter the plug-in hybrid grand tourer market with the Karma: it declared bankruptcy in November 2013.
