… in view of the massive amount of negative publicity about the company and its Ocean E-SUV.
As you may recall, Fisker disappeared shortly after introducing one of the first EVs–the “Karma” model. In June, 2023, they re-started production, and I finally saw one of their Ocean SUVs last week. I had parked near it at a regional shopping mall, but from a distance I had no idea what vehicle I was looking at. My best guess was that it was some sort of Range Rover, but it proved to be an Ocean SUV.
The exterior is–IMHO–just “meh”, and I definitely didn’t like its no-gloss “flat” paint job. But, I knew nothing about its performance. Well, according to one reviewer, it’s the worst car that he’s ever test-driven:
And, Ocean owners are NOT happy:
And then, Fisker’s plummeting stock price (less than $1 per share!) may lead to it being de-listed from the NYSE:
It looks like a lot of bad Karma is following this company.
I put 4 tires and alignment on one back in 2014… Very sharp looking car, still not sure why it is called a EV and not a Hybrid since it also has a GM 2.0L engine in it for extended range…
At the time, the only matching tire you could get for it was the OE Good Years, and the new tire tread depth was only 6 or 7/32, so the owner paid $$$$ for 4 brand new half worn out tires… lol
But I have seen 2 of them… If you look hard enough, you can see the solar panel built into the roof of the car in the 2nd picture…
Actually, Magna Steyr is an Austrian company, and right now they own about 9% of Fisker, but they own the right to purchase more shares of Fisker. The other vehicles that Magna Steyr builds for other companies at their Graz, Austria factory include…
No criticism of Magna. They are a quality company. The reviews did not complain so much about build quality but interaction design and software failures.
Mostly software and control interaction problems…
I have a friend that is in charge of Fisker’s chassis systems… I notice that was not included in the list of complaints…He knows what he’s doing. Fiskers software guys, designers, not so much.
Maybe new car companies should be required to hire an independent quality control team to test the initial run of their cars for 6 months or a year before being allowed to ship them?
Perhaps not a requirement, but it would certainly be a sensible move on the part of the corporate folks.
Let’s not forget the highly-flawed VinFast EVs that were shipped to The US a couple of years ago. And apparently, they haven’t gotten much better since then.
I think pharmaceutical companies that want to introduce new drugs first have to conduct clinical tests to prove the drugs actually does what it is intended to so, and is safe , done by knowledgeable scientists and medical experts, maybe not entirely independent of the firm, but not employed by the firm. If so, there’s a precedent.
As a follow-up, let’s just say that things aren’t looking good for Fisker. Earlier, there were reports that Nissan was looking to invest in the company in order to get access to an EV pickup, but…
There was a Fisker Ocean on temp tags in town last week, looked good but the owner is relying on the over the air fixes otherwise if something needs to be fixed it’s going to need to go back to their location in California, Rivian and Lucid at least have physical locations in the Seattle Area.
There are different types of bankruptcy filings. Which one do you mean? Here are restructuring and going out of business, to name two, and they are the most likely. Chapter 7 is for liquidation and reorganization in under chapters 11and 13.
I used to sell (mostly) used house-hold stuff at a local flea market once a month. The thing I learned from that experience, people will buy nearly anything. The stuff I thought I’ve have the toughest time selling, often sold the earliest in the day , and for a significant price premium over what I thought.
I’ve seen one here in Olympia a couple times and the nearest physical dealer is in California, We have a bunch of Rivian’s around town with mobile service available and the dealer near Seattle. Tesla at least has a service/sales center only 35mi from here,
Yes, they will buy nearly anything, but–even with their recent price cuts–the base price of a new Fisker Ocean SUV is ~$40k, and I think that will keep a lot of buyers away. Buying a new vehicle that is very technologically-oriented, which likely has embedded protocols needing the mfr’s own diagnostic tools for repairs, and for which parts will likely not be available when needed, is a very risky gambit. In this case, a pricey AND risky gambit!
But, then again, after the late '80s US marketplace failure of the Sterling 825 sedans, there were people who bought used Sterlings because of their very low price. They only found out after purchase that, while the Honda engine and transmission were bullet-proof, all of the electrical and electronic devices were highly-flawed, and parts availability was nil.
The Sterling 825 essentially wound-up as a ghetto car because of their low price, but most of those cars weren’t around very long because of their poor quality. I wonder if the same thing will happen to the few Fisker SUVs that are sitting in stock currently, and I pity the people who are foolish enough to buy one.
