Fisker PEAR 2023

Electric vehicle maker Fisker, which had said it wanted to build one of its EVs at Foxconn’s assembly plant in Lordstown, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

It joins others, including Lordstown Motors Corp., which for a period owned the former General Motors small-car assembly plant in Lordstown with ambitious plans to mass produce electric vehicles there before selling the massive complex to Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn.

Fisker Group Inc. said in a filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware that its estimated assets are between $500 million and $1 billion. Its estimated liabilities are between $100 million and $500 million, with between 200 and 999 creditors.

“Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic headwinds that have impacted our ability to operate efficiently,” the company said in a prepared statement. “After evaluating all options for our business, we determined that proceeding with a sale of our assets under Chapter 11 is the most viable path forward for the company.”

The 7-year-old electric car company was founded by designer Henrik Fisker, who has been its chairman and CEO. He designed the company’s 2022 Ocean all electric SUV as well as the luxury plug-in hybrid Karma that was launched in 2011. Fisker also led the development of the BMW Z8 sports car.

The company in May 2022 said it had plans to have its PEAR (Personal Electric Automotive Revolution), a sporty crossover, manufactured in Lordstown. Fisker and Foxconn, however, never signed a formal manufacturing agreement.

The target to start producing vehicles there was July 2025.

Fisker, based in Manhattan Beach, California, and other startups like Lordstown Motors, sought to take on industry leaders like Tesla, and big automakers in Detroit, which have entered the market aggressively.

However, EV sales have slowed as manufacturers have attempted to push electric vehicles into the mainstream. Those sales have been curbed both by a lack of infrastructure, as well as rising inflation that have made taking on car loans more expensive.

Electric vehicles grew only 3.3% to nearly 270,000 during the first three months of this year, far below the 47% growth that fueled record sales and a 7.6% market share last year, according to J.D. Power. The slowdown, led by Tesla, confirms automakers’ fears that they moved too quickly to pursue EV buyers. The EV share of total U.S. sales fell to 7.15% in the first quarter.

That has led to huge price cuts and job cuts at leading companies like Tesla.

Another electric startup, Rivian, said this year that it was pausing construction of its $5 billion manufacturing plant in Georgia to speed production and save money.

Lordstown Motors filed bankruptcy in June 2023. In March, a new company, Nu Ride Inc., emerged from the Lordstown Motors bankruptcy and relocated its headquarters from Lordstown to New York City.

Fisker is the second automotive venture led by Henrik Fisker to fail.

His first attempt to start an electric car company also ended in 2013. That 2013 collapse culminated a long downward spiral that began after Fisker received a $529 million loan commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy.

It was later learned that the U.S. Energy Department did not realize for four months that the flailing company, called Fisker Automotive Inc., had missed a crucial production target that was required as part of a half-billion dollar government loan. The mistake allowed Fisker to obtain an additional $32 million in government funding before the loan was suspended in June 2011.

Fisker Inc. and other U.S. subsidiaries, along with subsidiaries outside the U.S., are not currently included in the bankruptcy filing. Fisker says that it’s in advanced talks with financial stakeholders about debtor-in-possession financing and selling its assets.