History
In 2007, Henrik Fisker and Bernhard Koehler founded Fisker Automotive.[17] The company produced the Fisker Karma, which debuted in 2008 and was first delivered in 2011.[17] Production was suspended in 2012 due to the bankruptcy of its battery supplier A123 Systems,[18] after approximately 2,000 of the vehicles had been sold worldwide.[19] In 2014, Fisker Automotive's assets were purchased by Wanxiang Group, which renamed its new company Karma Automotive. Henrik Fisker retained the Fisker trademarks and brand.[20]
On October 3, 2016, chairman and CEO Henrik Fisker announced the formation of Fisker Inc.[21][22][23] with his wife and co-founder Geeta Gupta-Fisker as president and CFO.[24][25][26] On July 8, 2020, Fisker announced the completion of a $50 million Series C financing round funded by Moore Strategic Ventures, the private investment arm of Louis Bacon.[27]
On July 13, 2020, Henrik Fisker announced that Fisker Inc. would offer an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange through a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp. (NYSE:SPAQ), which is backed by private equity firm Apollo Global Management. The deal valued Fisker Inc. at $2.9 billion.[28][29] On September 24, 2020, Fisker opened a new technology center in San Francisco, to be a focal point for the development of the company's software and vehicle electronics.[30] On October 14, 2020, Fisker announced its new global headquarters will be located in Manhattan Beach in Los Angeles County, California.[31] On October 29, 2020, Fisker announced it completed the reverse merger with Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp (NYSE:SPAQ). Between October 30, 2020, and April 22, 2024, Fisker was publicly listed and traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols FSR, FSRN, or FSRNQ.[32][33]
On June 28, 2021, Fisker stock was added to the Russell 3000 Index.[34] On July 28, 2021, Fisker announced it would invest $10 million in private investment in public equity funding in an EV charging company.[35]
Henrik Fisker announced in 2022 that Fisker Inc. would set up its first India entity, a global technology center, in Hyderabad. The company started recruitment for the center and planned to employ 300 software engineers, and to set up a manufacturing plant in India for its PEAR model, in collaboration with Foxconn. Fisker Inc. and Foxconn initially targeted annual production at one million units of the PEAR, which was never constructed.[36][37]
In June 2023, Fisker announced that it intended to produce vehicles in China.[38] By the end of 2023, Fisker announced that it had “achieved all required approvals and licenses, and satisfied insurance requirements, to sell vehicles in Canada”,[39] and in January 2024, the company announced it would sell vehicles through dealers alongside its direct-to-consumer sales.[40]
Fisker's only production car, the Ocean, has experienced more than 100 loss-of-power incidents as well as other technical problems after delivery, resulting in three National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigations into different issues and multiple recalls.[41][42]
2024 financial difficulties
In March 2024, due to a net loss of over $463 million in 2023, Fisker announced that it was in financial trouble and did not have the necessary funds to remain in business through the coming year. Due to this, the company reduced its workforce by 15% and paused development of the Pear compact EV. Fisker subsequently entered talks with a major car manufacturer (suspected to be Nissan) regarding a $400 million cash injection (in order to generate cash or reduce costs) in exchange for access to the Fisker Alaska pick-up platform.[43][44] Several weeks later, The Wall Street Journal reported that Fisker hired financial adviser FTI Consulting and the law firm Davis Polk to work on a potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. As a result, Fisker's stock plummeted approximately 47% shortly after the announcement.[45] The next day, Fisker dismissed talks of a bankruptcy filing, describing plans to engage with its advisors to plan out a deal with another major carmaker.
