A sentence restarted, already liquidated? Fisker, a brand dear to the hearts of automotive aesthetes, is on the verge of filing for bankruptcy a few months after marketing the Ocean, the electric car which was to seal its revival. On March 18, the American company announced that it was suspending production for six weeks in order to reduce stocks (4,700 vehicles, in total) and announced, without giving further details, the next launch of convertible bonds for an amount of 150 million dollars (137 million euros).
Fisker, which announced a plan to cut 15% of its workforce and was unable to honor part of the interest linked to its financial commitments, finds itself, according to the Wall Street Journal, in near bankruptcy. The price war which accompanies the slowed growth in sales of electric models in the United States and in Europe, but also the arrival of numerous competing models designed by brands with much greater reputation and commercial power does not did not facilitate the relaunch of the California-based brand.
Founded for the first time in 2008 by Henrik Fisker, a Danish designer celebrated for his cult creations such as the BMW Z8 roadster or the Aston Martin Vantage and DB9, the brand threw in the towel in 2013 after launching the Karma, a model hybrid equipped with a thermal engine acting as a range extender. Very ahead of its time, this long and fluid sedan will have left its mark with the balance and purity of its forms which have given it a unanimously recognized aura.
Hurricane Sandy
Produced in 2,718 copies, it attracted a number of stars but without ever finding its audience. The manufacturer had to face the unexpected defection of its battery supplier then, in the fall of 2012, the destruction of 338 Karmas awaiting delivery to Port Newark (New Jersey) following the passage of Hurricane Sandy . which had ravaged the East Coast of the United States. Taken over by a Chinese group, the brand quickly declined, but its memory remains alive, like De Lorean but without the need for a blockbuster to enter the closed circle of legendary manufacturers with thwarted destinies.
In 2016, Henrik Fisker reignited the torch and convinced investors to follow him in a new project. In October 2022, it presents the Ocean at the Paris Motor Show, a 100% electric model manufactured in Graz, Austria, by Magna Steyr. In 2024, 1,300 copies of this self-proclaimed “designer car” with soft and rather original shapes, far from the aesthetic stereotypes of rough-hewn models in which many competing models indulge, have been delivered.
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