Fisker goes under, again

[Arde]

Henrik Fisker (BMW Z8 designer) is a brave man, not superstitious in spite of events.
He named his first company Fisker, and to tempt fate the car was named Karma...
On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy flooded and destroyed its entire European shipment of 338 Karmas at Port Newark, New Jersey. Sixteen of the cars burned, because six to eight feet of seawater caused a short circuit in a vehicle control unit in one Karma, and high winds spread the resulting fire to 15 others. On November 22, 2013, Fisker filed its first Chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
Henrik Fisker retained the Fisker logo and trademarks...bad idea. He should have exorcised them.
The new Fisker company developed an EV SUV named Ocean, again tempting fate, and ended underwater.
The company slogan was A Clean Future for All, and Bankruptcy Court is a place where one can get a clean future. They filed for Chapter 11 yesterday.
One of the Fisker investors was Leonardo Di Caprio, getting his own fate payback for Catch Me if you Can...
Another party that took a loss is Uncle Sam, of course...

I would love to own one of these cars, the question is how do I keep it running? The entire Ocean production was recalled a few days ago due to a scary software problem that can paralyze the drivetrain...

Perhaps do a reverse EV conversion and have Don put a BMW drivetrain in it?

The more I know men the more I like my dog, as the Greek reflected...

 

[x_atlas0]

I am not surprised by this at all. Fisker never had the cash to make a serious play.

Designing and building a modern car (platform + powertrain), in volume, costs about 3-10 billion USD. Even if you go low volume to reduce your plant capex costs, it's still ~0.25 to 1.5 billion for engineering and testing, with that range being driven largely by the target markets, the speed of development, and the number of simultaneous engineers. If you take longer in an effort to reduce costs, then you run into the problem of the vehicle being outdated by the time it's ready.

Fisker tried to cut the cost by outsourcing the manufacturing to Magna, but that only works if you have a stable product, which they clearly did not. Magna knows how to make money building someone else's car, which means they have a very clear set of input requirements that cannot change, and the pace of change is extremely slow compared to in-house. Every change with a contract manufacturer costs extra money.

It also sounds like Fisker didn't put the required emphasis on software. For an EV in particular, software is the primary customer-facing experience, right up there with the seat, steering wheel, and arm rests. It's something you use every time, so it had better be good. Making that software is challenging if you outsource it, because the systems engineering required on Fisker's part to make it work is substantial and generally missed by most technical project managers.

 

[Arde]

Yes, lots of capital and software.
Elon Musk could fund a new EV car company out of his yearly salary of 56B$, Fisker was not well funded.
Apple has capital and maybe the best software in the world, yet they cancelled their EV plans this year and will put the money in Generative AI instead...

Perhaps EVs should be about the drivetrain and have no visible software and no self driving ambitions? Think about a Don Lawrence EV, WYSIWYG, no stinking software .