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Electrical car startup Fisker is planning to put off 15% of its workers and says it doesn't have sufficient money to outlive the subsequent 12 months. The corporate says it's looking for a method to increase that cash as it really works to pivot from a direct gross sales to a dealership mannequin.
“Now we have created a plan to streamline the corporate as we put together for one more troublesome 12 months,” founder and CEO Henrik Fisker stated in an announcement. Fisker reported shedding greater than 1,300 staff by the top of September 2023, which means the cuts may have an effect on round 200 folks. The corporate's share value fell 35% in after-hours buying and selling.
Fisker stated Thursday it ended 2023 with $396 million in money, though $70 million of that’s restricted. The corporate says it’s speaking to considered one of its lenders about making “further investments” within the firm. It additionally claimed it’s in talks with a big automaker for a “potential transaction that might embrace an funding in Fisker, joint improvement of a number of electrical car platforms and North American manufacturing.”
Such a partnership can be important, as Fisker executives stated on a name Thursday that it could not make investments any more cash in its future merchandise until it labored with one other automaker. Which means the destiny of pickup vans, compact EVs and different fashions teased by Fisker is now in query.
The corporate is dealing with monetary struggles because it tries to maneuver towards a wholesale mannequin constructed on partnerships with sellers, a change that Fisker says has had a “adverse influence” on its gross sales thus far. Has had an influence. It at the moment has a listing of hundreds of autos whose collective worth exceeds $500 million. Fisker says it has obtained curiosity from about 250 dealerships however has signed up solely 13 to this point.
As TechCrunch reported earlier this month, Fisker can also be scuffling with various issues with its Ocean SUV, its solely mannequin to this point. The corporate stated it resolved some points with a software program replace in December and plans to repair many extra points in a bigger 2.0 replace earlier this month, however that's just for buyer autos this week. Has began coming. Stories of sudden brake failure, in addition to some car overturning incidents, are at the moment being investigated by the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration.
Many large automakers are pulling again from their aggressive EV targets and new gamers are additionally dealing with issues. Rivian just lately introduced it’s slicing its workforce by 10% and expects to make about the identical variety of EVs this 12 months because it did in 2023. Lucid Motors plans to make about 9,000 autos this 12 months, after as soon as predicting it could construct 90,000. This time.
Nonetheless, Fisker has at all times distinguished itself from different EV startups as a result of it has adopted an “asset gentle” enterprise mannequin. It designed the Ocean however outsourced manufacturing to Magna Steyr in Austria. That call helped it get automobiles on the highway sooner than another startups, although it has put the corporate in danger in different methods. For instance, its Ocean SUV point-of-sale shouldn’t be eligible for the federal EV tax credit score as a result of the car shouldn’t be manufactured in North America.
Finally, Fisker stated Thursday that after beginning shipments in June, it could promote solely 5,000 Ocean SUVs in 2023 and generate $273 million in income. It misplaced solely $761 million for the whole 12 months. Magna produced greater than 10,000 Oceans, and Fisker stated it expects to start delivery to its new supplier companions to generate money within the close to time period. The corporate declined to say on the convention name what number of autos its early companions have ordered or plan to order.
Like many different EV startups that went public by merging with a particular goal acquisition firm, Fisker has confronted various rising difficulties as a public firm. It needed to delay the discharge of its third quarter 2023 monetary leads to half as a result of it discovered weaknesses in its inside monetary reporting. Across the similar time, two totally different chief accounting officers additionally resigned.
These issues continued Thursday, as Fisker stated it could be delayed in reporting its full 2023 monetary outcomes. It additionally revealed that it had found one other materials weak spot associated to its “income and associated steadiness sheet accounts”. Consequently, it included the monetary knowledge launched on Thursday as “preliminary”, even including an asterisk to the title of the press launch.