Fisker bankrupt

[Scorpio3d]

Ford may be burning through cash to get the EV side profitable but at least we shouldn’t have to deal with this!

https://www.motortrend.com/features/bankrupt-fisker-ocean-ev-owner-buying-advice-faq/

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[detansinn]

The best way to be successful and establish your company's foothold in the EV space is to also sell gasoline powered cars and/or motorcycles. Pure EV plays are very very hard -- just look at Tesla's struggles and they're the so-called "leader".

 

[Bills R Electric]

Ford may be burning through cash to get the EV side profitable but at least we shouldn’t have to deal with this!

https://www.motortrend.com/features/bankrupt-fisker-ocean-ev-owner-buying-advice-faq/

Hate to see an EV company fail.

As far as Ford "losing money" with EVs, Tesla "lost" a ton of money it's first 10 years. A ton. It was year 10 before Tesla made its first profit.

When will it be year 10 for Ford? 2029?

 

[Bills R Electric]

Tesla was founded in 2003.
It lost money for 10 years, and had its first profitable quarter in 2013.
Tesla did NOTHING else besides EVs

Tesla has been in business for 21 years now.

A company like Fisker needed 10 years worth of Cash if they were going to make it. Not 3. It just doesn't work that way.

 

[RocketGhost]

I remember when Saab went kaput. Local dealer had brand new ones, no warranty, but said they can sell third party warranties on them. I wouldn't be afraid to own a Saab, there's enough third party support to keep them serviced. Fisker owners, on the other hand, are screwed. A simple part failure can stop it indefinitely. Need a module reset to get it running? No one has the diagnostic equipment to do it. There will probably be an independent shop somewhere in the country to provide service, but for most the towing bill to get the car there will be $$$. No one will buy the company as a whole, but it's intellectual property will most likely get sold.

EVs aren't like orphaned gas cars of the past where anyone can work on them and it's just a matter of getting parts. EVs need specialized equipment to work on them and their parts can be so expensive there's no aftermarket companies willing to step up.

At least we don't have to worry, Ford isn't going anywhere. Even if they end up going completely under they will get bought.

 

[hturnerfamily]

Ford doesn't need 10 years. They were profitable before they even made their first EV.

but, if you take into consideration the NEW capital costs(buildings, mechanicals, machinery, people, batteries, and additional different products as part of the process), sure, they will need to sell a boat-load of EVs, specifically, to get over this 'hump'... as every new business does - they just don't have to sweat it as much as pure EV manufacturers do.

 

[invertedspear]

Fisker owners, on the other hand, are screwed.

"For full year 2023, 10,193 Fisker Oceans were produced, and 4,929 vehicles were delivered." Source

So at least there won't be that many people affected, hopefully someone can cannibalize those 5k unsold cars into spare parts for the 5k that did sell.

EVs aren't like orphaned gas cars of the past where anyone can work on them and it's just a matter of getting parts. EVs need specialized equipment to work on them and their parts can be so expensive there's no aftermarket companies willing to step up.

This is absolutely the manufactures manufacturing reliance and a future parts and service business. They could build an EV with pretty-much off the shelf parts, but they don't. Maybe it helps reduce manufacturing costs, or maybe is streamlines some particular part, but it would be really nice to see at least the ability to hack together replacements. I'd love to see hackers figure out how to replace modules with Raspberry Pis, or switches/buttons with something I can buy from an electronic parts store like Radio Shack used to be. This would require people to have some beloved passion for the vehicle like Jeep owners do, probably not going to see that from a car line that only sold 5k units.

 

[Monkey]

The best way to be successful and establish your company's foothold in the EV space is to also sell gasoline powered cars and/or motorcycles. Pure EV plays are very very hard -- just look at Tesla's struggles and they're the so-called "leader".

Tesla has an Elon problem though…. His fanboys continue to pump the stock and voted for his comp package while the Tesla board is made up of his personal entourage of yes-men. An increasing number of existing and potential customers are losing interest in buying a Tesla because of him and his dumbass social media presence and questionable business activities. He should just STFU and build rockets and stay out of everything else.

Cybertruck failed to live up to announced specs, let alone any of the hype. It has some cool tech like the 48V lv system and component connectivity, steer by wire, etc.. But the construction quality is pretty shoddy and they had to contract out a lot of components to low bidders and its effecting the overall reliability. Due to all that combined with price increases, high interest rates, Elon himself, etc.. the conversation rate on reservations is super low. And yet they continue to crank out trucks at a furious pace and they’re stacking up in parking lots near service centers nation-wide due to poor sales as well as more stop-sales for voluntary recall issues.

Car sales are down across the industry, it’s not just EVs as the media likes to spin. Ford, GM, Toyota all have 100K+ cars sitting in inventory and those numbers are growing. Where this is a problem for Tesla more than anyone else is they don’t have a large enough selection of vehicles to keep sales at a reasonable pace. When you only sell 5 different models and only two of them are commonly affordable, neither of which would be considered an economy vehicle. And are really only affordable to middle class consumers *if* they qualify for all the tax incentives. And being EVs, they’re a tough-sell in the economy segment of the market as it’s difficult to maintain affordable and convenient charging when you live in an apartment/condo/etc.. When you always have to DCFC your car, it loses most practical advantages over an ICE car.

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