History repeats itself as Fisker, the electric automaker started by car designer Henrik Fisker, faces a series of challenges that could potentially result in the company filing for bankruptcy. The timing of this is interesting if you consider all the negative press, but it’s probably best to weigh the bad buzz against all the other information about the company we have.
While Tesla is far from being in Fisker shape, the world’s second-biggest EV automaker is taking some fairly desperate measures to increase its profitability as it faces its own challenges. In spite of all the EV troubles for others, Toyota is reportedly going to electrify the Hilux.
And, finally, I had a great night with legendary racer Jacky Ickx — a night definitely worth sharing with all of y’all.
Fisker Bankruptcy Is ‘Inevitable’ As Stock Is Delisted: Hedge Fund Chairman
There’s been a lot of conversation about Fisker lately and not a lot of it has been positive. The company ended the year in bad financial condition and had to tell people it was at risk of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and was maybe going to run out of money if it didn’t get help.
And then Marquees Brownlee called it the “worst car he’s ever reviewed” and the Internet lost its mind. This was followed by news that maybe the company was getting a $150 million lifeline, but that was contingent, it seems, on closing a deal with a large automaker (widely believed to be Nissan). Then Consumer Reports called the car “unfinished” and “nauseating” in a review, which is capped off with Consumer Reports mentioning that Fisker forgot to cash its check (Free car)!
Now, all the worst is happening.
- Fisker has been delisted by the New York Stock Exchange.
- The deal with the large automaker believed to be Nissan is dead.
- The $150 million lifeline that was offered was contingent on certain terms, including apparently the automaker deal, and now that the deal is dead the lifeline is in peril.
Here’s Fisker’s response to all of this, via Automotive News:
Great Hill Capital, of course, is the company that bought G/O Media. I’m not entirely sure why the company’s chairman is being quoted here, but he’s likely not wrong.
So back to the headline. We’re getting into real post hoc ergo propter hoc territory, which is to say there’s a temptation to assume that if B happens after A then A caused B. None of the reports on Fisker helped and Brownlee’s spiraled out of control pretty fast, but what Brownlee noted was what other people with un-updated cars noticed, he just happens to be extremely popular so people care more.
I don’t know Brownlee personally, but as a car writer who plays a lot of ultimate frisbee, it’s been impressive to watch him build a huge personal brand from two activities that are not usually inclined toward big followings.
His review seemed fair and completely consistent with his prior car reviews. It was a bad look for the company, only compounded by a hapless service call to the owner of the Fisker that Brownlee borrowed. It was also completely avoidable because Brownlee had requested a car from Fisker and had been told to wait for a ‘fixed’ one. David got a fixed one and thought it was good, and DeMuro also had one and liked it.
There will be more time to post-mortem Fisker, and I suppose I should wait until the supposedly inevitable bankruptcy to do so, but let’s just run through what is known:
- Fisker already has one bankrupt green automaker under his belt.
- Fisker used a SPAC to get listed on the NYSE, which is a shortcut to an IPO that has mostly been unsuccessful for companies.
- Fisker entered the market with the most ubiquitous form of EV, which is a two-row crossover. This put the company in competition with Ford and Tesla, both of whom could afford to cut prices and undercut Fisker.
- Fisker’s capital structure appears to have required everything to go well rather quickly, which is not how it usually works out for startup automakers.
- The Fisker Ocean is a good car when it’s functional, but it launched with many issues that needed to be addressed.
All of this was true before anyone reviewed the car. Is it possible that all the negative press scared off Nissan and doomed the company? Maybe, but there’s an argument to be made that this was doomed from Jump Street.
Elon Musk Making Every Customer Get A ‘Full Self Driving’ Demo And A Month Of Free ‘FSD’
Tesla’s “full self-driving” mode is not full self-driving and it, as you might expect, doesn’t always drive the car a way a human would. Like all Level 2 assisted driving systems, it’s there to help, but requires a lot of human supervision.
You know who would also benefit from more human supervision? Tesla CEO Elon Musk. But that ain’t happening anytime soon, so he’s out reportedly emailing his employees and telling them that before every delivery in North America, a customer has to be shown how FSD works.
“Going forward, it is mandatory in North America to install and activate FSD V12.3.1 and take customers on a short test ride before handing over the car,” Musk wrote in an email to staffers on Monday. “Almost no one actually realizes how well (supervised) FSD actually works. I know this will slow down the delivery process, but it is nonetheless a hard requirement.”
Why might this be happening?
Tesla is under pressure to avoid a drop in year-over-year deliveries for the first quarter. At least one independent researcher, who publishes as “Troy Teslike,” predicts Tesla will report lower numbers, marking at least a 1% decline in deliveries, from 422,875 a year ago.
On Monday night, Musk said in a post on X, the social media platform he owns, “All US cars that are capable of FSD will be enabled for a one month trial this week.”
Software is cheap, real features are expensive. Every automaker is trying to boost its margins through software and it seems like Tesla isn’t immune to the temptation. This sounds fairly desperate to me, but the quarter is ending soon so we’ll see how far off Tesla was to start the year.
Reuters: Toyota’s EV Hilux Due In 2025
Here’s a short, fun update from Reuters:
Japan’s Toyota plans to mass-produce a battery electric Hilux pickup truck by the end of 2025, the president of its Thailand unit said on Tuesday.
The announcement comes just a few days after the Thai government said that the rival Japanese automaker Isuzu Motors said it would manufacture its battery D-MAX pickup in Thailand by 2025.
Dope. Also fun to get news from the President of Thailand! That Srettha Thavisin fella usually is pretty tight-lipped.
Jacky Ickx Is A Damn Delight
We had a lot of news from the Genesis Motors event I attended in New York last night as the company unveiled five different vehicles, including at least two that were meant for near-term production and one (the Moon Jar concept) that’ll probably debut as a production model next year.
The surprise guest at the event was Belgian racing hero Jacky Ickx who has won… all the races. I had no idea that Ickx would be there (thus the surprise part) and so it had nothing to do with why we published a post from a first-time contributor about Ickx’s Dakar adventure in the Lada Samara yesterday.
During the panel Genesis hosted Ickx got up to speak. I’ve seen enough old race car drivers talk to know that I shouldn’t expect much. Some can still command a room (Mario Andretti and Hurley Haywood are both a delight, for instance), but others are mostly there to stand around and just be there.
When Ickx started talking with no script and no notes I took a deep breath. Ickx is a hero and it would be understandable, but a bit sad, to see him not quite rise to the moment.
That’s not what happened.
Ickx gave a stirring speech on the value of teamwork, the beauty of Korea, and then quoted a Korean poem from memory. It was kind of amazing and the whole crowd of hungry, jaded journalists sat in quiet awe.
Later, at the reception, I ended up next to Ickx and a Genesis executive while ordering a drink at the Genesis House bar. I had to interject and introduce myself (and Road & Track‘s Aaron Brown) and point out the coincidence of us writing about him yesterday.
“Ah, we were just talking about Dakar!” Ickx exclaimed.
“Ahh… the Samara, it was a great car. Porsche motor and suspension.”
As we talked about his friend and importer Poch he kept grabbing bits of Korean fried chicken from the passing waitstaff. The chef sent over a whole tray with his regards and Ickx then insisted, multiple times, that we eat more chicken. I had so much damn chicken and regret none of it.
At the end of the night, he thanked us for writing the piece and said he was looking forward to hopefully seeing us at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Sometimes it’s good to meet your heroes.
What I’m Listening To While Doing TMD
Appropriately, a little Japanese Breakfast this morning. Fun fact, the Saab in this song is actually our pal Syd’s car!
The Big Question
Who is the coolest car person you’ve ever met?
> the Moon Jar concept
It’s like you really care about me (I had a happy cry emoji but Kinj- uh, the comment system didn’t care for it)
For real though I was trying to tumble through the letters and couldn’t hit on what it was actually called. Neologism? Neurismis? Neologan?
Edit: emojictomy
I blame David for Fisker’s failure. We’ve already established that he likes garbage (Postal Jeep, rusty old ZJ, shower spaghetti). He liked the Fisker Ocean and its expensive – therefore, by the transitive property, the Fisker Ocean is expensive garbage.
Dear Mr. Fisker,
There’s an old saying in Tennessee- I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says “Fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me, won’t get fooled again”. Anyways, I look forward to investing in Fisker 3.0 in 2026. Now watch this drive.
HA – best unexpected Dubya reference of the day!
I think the term Journalist is thrown around way too freely. I have never watched Marques Brownlee, and he may be the real deal, but a content creator does not automatically equal journalist. The UN defines a free press as one of the pillars of democracy and human rights. If you are generating content (written, audio, or video) for the sole purpose of generating revenue (clicks, views, impressions, etc.), you may be many things, even good things, but you are not a journalist. A journalist has an obligation to the truth and to source and vet information properly. There is very little journalism left with the monetization of news.
Preach brother! Can I get an amen!
–a (underpaid overworked) journalist
Two cliches in 7 words, that’s got to be a record
Let us not forget ow much audiences froth at the mouth over crappy reviews. It’s like the human fetish for gruesome accident scenes.
You are soooo right about this.
Years ago there was a writer on some blog – an early Gizmodo maybe? – who whined that he was a journalist because he was paid to write but he was clearly opinionated and made no effort to hide it in his reporting. He got laughed off the site by the commenters, as I recall.
FSD is now the TrueCoat for Tesla
You see, they put it on at the factory!
Benny Parsons or Bobby Allison. Two of the most humble and funny guys ever.
The coolest car person I’ve met is my friend who would probably rather I didn’t name him. The most famous car person I’ve met is probably John Hennessey back when he would show up at Houston C&C.
I watched the MKBHD review, and it was a pretty damn bad showing for FIsker. THings all other automakers have figured out (like bluetooth and driver assists) were giving him issues. Call hima tech bro but he is a big car guy, and the issues he pointed out were all software side. If you dont want bad reviews, dont put out a bad product. the call from the engineer to the owner/dealer was a terrible look too.
Also its hilarious that COnsumer Reports got the car for free because the financially failing company never cashed the check.
I wonder how many failed businesses would have succeeded if they were just better at actually collecting the money they were owed. I once did a guided ice climbing expedition and 1) You didn’t have to pay up front, which is crazy, and 2) When I did go to pay afterward there was a problem with their payment system that caused it to overcharge me. I sent them multiple emails about it and got no response whatsoever. They never reached out to fix the problem, or even to ask why I hadn’t paid yet. I can only assume their record-keeping was so bad they had no idea who had or hadn’t paid.
I don’t know how many companies fail because they don’t cash the checks or pursue open invoices, but failure to do is is a pretty good indicator they aren’t going to be good at other core business functions.
I think you mean post hoc ergo propter hoc.
And people said that Philosophy 101 class was a waste of time. 😛
(It wasn’t, for the record. If you ever have a chance to take a philosophy class I highly recommend it. Not because any specific philosophical debate we had was that interesting, but because it teaches you new ways to think about the world, even if you don’t agree with all of them. It may be the single most important class I took in college.)
It’s good to see somone defending proper Latin. Or, rather, improper Latin.
I was in the winnner’s suite at MIS when Sterling Marlin won. We (as in me and him as I was standing next to him) did a champagne toast, and then he immediately put down the flute and said, “Yuck. Somebody get me a damn Coors!”. He is (and I mean this is the best way possible) such a redneck and hilariously cool to talk to. Although, I guess anyone would be in a good mood after winning a shit-ton of money…
The Samurai left the U.S. because of fallout from “one bad review”. Granted, the key difference there is that the review was fradulent, but by the time Suzuki sued and got a the review rescinded and corrected, the damage was already completely done. Its possible this end was inevitable, but I think it denies reality to assume Brownlee had only a miniscule impact on the timeline.
Audi nearly left the US over a fabricated news story, only stayed because Volkswagen was willing and able to cover losses for several years of rebuilding
I was rooting for Fisker, but it’s not promising. Still hope someone else will step in save the day. Maybe they should’ve opened with the Alaska vs. the Ocean; probably fewer sales in the segment, but less competition right now, too, and greater chance to stand out, assuming your product is good.
Most famous car person I’ve met? That would be Bob Tullius of Group 44 renown. His team won 14 national SCCA championships and three Trans Am titles. Their more than 300 race victories also include eleven IMSA GTP championships.
I won’t blame any youtuber if Fisker goes bankrupt. I’ll blame Fisker for having a bad business plan, because Magna sure knows how to make a car, in case the company hiring them lets them to just that, and has enough money to pay for everything in time. However, I’ll say that any automotive startup has a hard time also partly due to youtubers, tiktokers and other influencers making sure that every post they make is about the WORST, TERRIBLE, CHEAPEST, MOST AMAZING, HIDDEN, SECRET, BUZZWORD THIS, BUZZWORD THAT, EXTREME, LOOK AT ME thing. Tesla could make it, because they were smart with their products and had the money and the following of Musk. Others don’t have the money and the power of Musk, but they do have prototypes that aren’t ready for Youtube. Of course time running out, I know, so Fisker can only blame Fisker for being not ready soon enough. Still, we could be nicer to automotive startups, because making new cars from the start is the worst, terrible, most expensive, amazing, hidden and super secret project there is.
Marques Brownlee only brought attention to a company that was already struggling. Something similar as the NYT reported on GM with their data practices. Some issues need to be presented by someone with good influence that can reach a lot of people, the problem is when social media is used to present lies and nothing gets actually probed with facts.
Re Fisker:
Fisker’s situation is akin to the Tucker Corporation trying to launch the Tucker 48 in 1947/48. Both of these companies had innovative products but were under capitalized and BOTH suffered from bad press that only hastened their demise.
Tis a damn shame too!
There isn’t anything innovative about Fisker’s products compared with Tesla, Ford, GM, Hyundai/Kia, and other similar sized crossover EVs. And the styling wasn’t helping either…
Innovation, perhaps not. But I think that Fisker’s designs are distinct and that the designs set them apart from the other Auto manufactures (good or bad)
Yeah, I failed to see any reason why I would give the Fisker Ocean a chance over the other EVs in the segment backed by companies that won’t go bankrupt next week and have a place in my town to get service.
That Maverick-like vehicle they previewed, maybe that would do it, but not some run of the mill looking CUV.
Hmm, desperate Tesla may mean a cheaper Model Y Performance. Just saying. Not like anyone needs a 3.5 second 0-60 but that’s speed for the people. And if they’re pulling this now, imagine what they’ll do in Q2 and Q3 if sales stay flat. They’ll be even more desperate since Musk has to keep the stock price up.
Just because Fisker was already in dire circumstances does not mean that some tech-bro Youtuber who did an automotive review didn’t have some sort of effect on what’s going on, even if it was very miniscule.
How much of the media picked up on his review and ran articles about it? Same thing happened with Hoovie, an actual automotive YouTuber, when he did his Lightning videos.
Marques is bigger, so his voice has a bigger impact.
I can think of 2 reasons the Tesla FSD demo is mandatory.
Every time I’d read an article on here about Fisker’s troubles, I couldn’t help but think that do we really need another higher end electric SUV? I feel like the answer now is that yes, we already have enough of those from a multitude of other brands and if you’re going to try to compete in that space, you really need to make sure you have everything ready. I wonder if Fisker could have been more successful if they built a car in some other category, maybe something smaller and more affordable like the Bolt.
I think the issue on that end is that most people shopping for a cheaper car already have a brand/s locked in and aren’t going to want to take the risk on a new company.
it’s going to most likely be low sales either way, so new companies start with the ones that will get them the most profit per car and try to make themselves a “lifestyle” or status symbol.
I think we’re at market saturation right now, Fisker, Rivian, and Tesla all have theirs on the market, Lucid is coming out with one, and established legacy automakers are all either in, or about to be in, the space. I don’t think there’s room for them all to be successful, the market isn’t bottomless, and a shakeout/consolidation is inevitable. I may have even left a few out
I wouldn’t pay $20, let alone $200 per month for Tesla FSD even if it were level 3 capable at highway speed on the entire interstate network.
You would have to pay me to use Tesla’s FSD.
Especially when you can pick up a brand new Ioniq 6 on lease for ~$240/month with nothing down, that’s a feature subscription that costs almost as much as a lease!
I’m quickly learning that the Ioniq 6 lease situation is … complicated by dealer greed (natch), taxes (natch), and availability. Latest speed bump is that my insurance company wants nothing to do with Hyundai or KIA vehicles due to theft. We’ll see how things work out.
Ahh right, I hadn’t considered that but that makes a ton of sense. I still argue that FSD shouldn’t be anywhere even half of what a lease payment on a decent new car is these days, given monthly FSD subscription is effectively still just a lease on software, on a car you already have to make payments on
I actually saw a Fisker Ocean the other day (in metro Detroit).
I’m still not sure why I saw one.
Someone in my neighborhood has one. It’s a great looking car. I feel bad for how much money they’re losing on it, especially considering that I get the overall vibe that it was a stretch purchase.
Ain’t nothing more American than overleveraging yourself on a brand new EV that’s guaranteed to depreciate faster than you can pay it off. Examples of heinous depreciation include:
VW ID.4 – 2021 models can easily be found under 22k, and under 65k miles
Any Luxury EV – E-tron (SUV & GT) EQ(all) S especially
Nissan Leaf – Air cooled battery? Great investment! (/s)
Mach-E – Neither a mustang, nor a good product\
Model 3/Y – also available sub-20k, granted must go older than 2021
Or any other current gen EV
The depreciation on BEVs is eye watering. I’ve seen Audi E Tron GTs and Taycans dipping into the 50s already. Perfectly decent examples of the E Tron SUVs are now in the mid to high 30s in my area, which is inherently expensive (DC) so I’d imagine they’re even cheaper elsewhere. But I agree with your “it’s very American” take.
SHINY NEW THING! MUST HAVE! My payment will only be $899 a month? That’s less than half my income I’ll be FINE! LOOK AT ME EVERYONE! and so on.
For the love of god and all that is holy, if you want a BEV just lease the damn thing. Or buy one once some other sucker has eaten the depreciation…but do you really want something that’s going to be obsolete in 3-4 years?
Exactly, I’m extremely EV-Curious and want to have one just for fun, but no way can I stomach even a quarter of the depreciation of what they have right now, and I have zero reason to dump my CX-30 which I adore as a daily, hence why I’m waiting for a sub 5k Leaf to pop up. Other than that, I cannot possibly recommend any new EV short of a wicked lease deal, or a heavily depreciated 2-3 year old model.
In general overall cost of ownership has been a very weird topic in how it’s changed the past 3 years. We’re getting closer to normal, and you’re able to make some very questionable decisions great on paper.
For example, early Bentley Bentaygas are in the low 70k range now, with under 80k miles, and likley have some depreciation left, but are already down 200k+. Compare that to a brand new Grand Wagoneer Series 3 at 115k, which will depreciate half in 2-3 years, (~50k) and its almost to the point where a used Bentayga is the CHEAPER option over 2-3 years than a new Jeep. Is it a terrible idea? But man would that be awesome, until it breaks.
Now that’s some enthusiast math if I’ve ever seen it haha. That being said I’ve thought long and hard about buying low on a heavily depreciated luxury car and just accepting that random expenses are part of it.
As in…paying cash for an Arnage or something similar in the 20s or 30s rather than financing a 60k fun car. Is it going to be cheap to own? Of course not…but if it’s already paid off, who cares?
I can afford a random $1,500 service if I don’t have a payment on the damn thing. Hell I’m paying $600 a month for my Kona N right now. There comes a point when taking on the burden of having a mechanically complex vehicle is less money than financing or outright buying a new car.
Basically, it may seem dumb on the surface…but if you dig deeper into the numbers there’s definitely an inflection point when it becomes less crazy. Especially if you plan on keeping the car for a long time. There’s a decent chance that it’ll increase in value if you take care of it.
Am I crazy or can it make sense if done correctly?
Heck even if you don’t have any intention of keeping it long term, it can make total sense entirely based on your frame of reference. is the maintenance cost compared to any normal 30k car acceptable? Of course not. But is 5-10k/year in running costs bad compared to buying a brand new S-Class (or even worse, an EQS) and eating double that in depreciation a good use of your money? Also no.
Basically, if you can afford and want to get the experience of a super special hyper-luxury barge the likes of which doesn’t exist today for less than 500k, why not? It’s insanely expensive compared to a camry at the same purchase price, but compared to an equivalently luxurious car that would give a similar (and arguably in many ways worse) experience, its downright cheap! just make sure you have a backup car for the 20% of the year its stuck in the shop on a lift lol
I approve of your plan to by a used Bentley EV! Bargain price baller status!
No that’s excellent math. I probably won’t ever daily drive anything that’s not made by Honda, but for the other driving, a pre-1990 German car or two bought in cash at the bottom of its depreciation isn’t a bad move.
I’d much rather have a $30k lifetime TCO on a badass Benz than $40k lifetime TCO on a financed Malibu.
Probably a test car, I work near the Lordstown Motors office and still can’t get used to seeing the blasted things. I always do a double-take wondering who on Earth could have bought one on purpose before realizing, with great relief, that nobody did.
I saw one of those a few months ago as well – that probably was even more mind-boggling.
The other day at my local Walmart there was a Lotus Eletre with a whole array of instruments on the roof just plugged into the charger out front. Detroit is a pretty wild place to live.
Henrik Fisker is a conman. He always has been. He turned his well earned success and goodwill as a designer into a weapon. He’ll do it again if we don’t wise up, too. In a few years after this all blows over he’ll be back with some stunning car that’s marketed as being environmental, everyone will ooooo and ahhhhh over how pretty it is, he’ll pocket a bunch of investor money, then peace out.
It’s actually pretty clever, because wrapping everything up in an environmentalist bow really seems to disarm people. “Oh, he cares about the environment! Surely he isn’t going to take the money and run.” I mean, the dude’s wife is CFO of Fisker. How did that not raise alarm bells?
On top of that, multiple CFO’s resigned before her, one after only a few weeks. Multiple people have gotten a look at their books recently and said “hell no”. This is merely the tip of the iceberg, and I hope he finally gets held accountable this time. Fool me once, etc.
I hope everyone remembers his first two scams when he suddenly reappears in 2030 with a new car he’s trying to sell. For some reason folks seemingly didn’t remember his last fiasco before this one. Let’s not let that happen again, alright?
My brother in-law was talking in glowing praise about Fisker a few months ago and I was like didn’t he already have a failed electric car company before this new one? Couldn’t understand his excitement with that failure already under his belt. Clearly a gifted con artist.
Hell, he even re-used the same damn logo
Henrik and his wife are the only two people responsible for the (SECOND) failure of Fisker…
I’ve met quite a few cool car people, but I would have to say my favorite was Paul Newman.
Question on Tesla, are they doing this delivery bullshit for people who don’t even want the FSD software?
Sounds like it, it appears that the goal is to convince skeptics to opt in after experiencing what they’re “missing out” on.
One bad review away from bankruptcy is no way to live.