2023 Fisker Ocean on 2040-cars

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Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

Fisker temporarily lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments as it scaled up deliveries, leading to an internal audit that started in December and took months to complete, TechCrunch has learned. The EV startup was ultimately able to track down a majority of those payments or request new ones from customers whose payment methods had expired. But the disarray, which was described to TechCrunch by three people familiar with the internal payment crisis, took employees and resources away from Fisker’s sales team at a time when the company was attempting to save itself by restructuring its business model. Fisker struggled to keep tabs on these transactions, which included down payments and in some cases, the full price of the vehicles, because of lax internal procedures for keeping track of them, according to the people. In a few cases, it delivered vehicles without collecting any form of payment at all, they said. “Checks were not cashed in a timely manner or just lost altogether,” one of the people told TechCrunch. “We were often scrambling to find checks, credit card receipts and any wired funds a few months after a vehicle was sold.” Alongside the internal audit, outside auditor PwC was asking Fisker for more documentation about its vehicle sales as part of the process of putting together the company's annual financial report, according to two of the people. Fisker was often unable to provide satisfactory documentation, leading to more requests from PwC. “Paperwork being collected wasnÂ’t always being collected in full, or sent to the same places,” another one of the people said. These sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press about internal matters. This internal confusion put the company in a position where it couldnÂ’t accurately say how much revenue it had generated, according to the people, who noted it is one of the reasons Fisker has yet to file its annual financial report for 2023. Tracking down the payments may wind up offering little solace to the startup, which is on the brink of bankruptcy. Fisker has paused production of its only vehicle, the Ocean SUV, after running into trouble meeting internal sales goals and struggling to support customers dealing with a number of quality problems. It has alerted investors that it may not be able to continue operations without a fresh infusion of cash.

There's a new Karma Revero called the Aliso, and it costs $145,000

There's a slightly more luxurious version of the Karma Revero now, called the Aliso. The name comes from a California beach, and the appearance of the car does a decent job of emulating the aesthetic of a beach as well. On the exterior, you get what Karma calls Laguna Pearl white paint made with layers of glass flakes to give it a shimmering appearance. Carbon fiber wheels are standard with orange brake calipers giving a bit of contrast to the otherwise beach-like colors elsewhere. The interior is beige, or sand-colored if you ask Karma. It's unique from other Reveros in its red burl wood treatment all around. You'll be able to find scripted "Aliso" badging in various spots on the car, but that's pretty much it as far as differences between this and a normal Revero. We can safely classify it as an appearance package, although the carbon fiber wheels are pretty cool. For the car and all the extra goodies you'll pay $145,000. That's $15,000 more than a base Revero with all the same performance metrics. As a reminder, the Revero is a plug-in hybrid vehicle (based off the original Fisker Karma) with a pair of electric motors and 2.0-liter gasoline engine. In total, the system outputs 400 horsepower and 900 pound-feet of torque, shoving it to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds. So is having a unique Revero Aliso worth the extra cash on top of an already expensive vehicle? You may not even be able to choose, because Karma is making 15 Alisos with deliveries set to start in November and go into December. Meanwhile, since we mentioned Fisker: Something we're still waiting on is Fisker's solid-state battery tech it debuted at CES last year. Fisker says it'll be coming to EVs for 2020. Caterpillar seems confident of that too, as the construction equipment company just announced it's investing in Fisker, hoping it can one day take advantage of the electrification tech Fisker manages to develop. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Featured Gallery Karma Revero Aliso Green Fisker Hybrid Luxury Performance Sedan karma revero

Henrik Fisker opens up about EVs

Danish car designer Henrik Fisker is an interesting figure in the automotive world. After heading up design at Aston Martin he created the initial design for the Tesla Model S before launching Fisker Automotive. There, he created the Karma range-extended electric sports car. As we all know, the company eventually went bankrupt, leaving Mr. Fisker's future in question. Now he's back on the scene with his $230,000 supercar, the VLF Force 1, which debuted at the 2016 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Interestingly the V10-powered Force 1, along with VLF's V8-powered Destino, is a huge departure from the green machines for which Fisker was responsible not too long ago. If that makes you curious as to what's going on inside the talented head of Henrik Fisker, you're not alone. Thankfully, Fisker has opened up to Tech Insider, discussing his thoughts on EVs and the future of the automotive world. While Fisker was part of the EV revolution – in his words, showing that "electric cars can be beautiful and exciting and fun to drive" – mass adoption has been slower than he originally predicted. The field is still too limited, with not much available in terms of what people want to buy. The driving range, too, is a huge obstacle to EV uptake, but that is slowly improving. "The choice for consumers is still fairly limited, but in my mind there's no doubt electric cars are here to stay," says Fisker. "It is going to be a growing segment and it will continue to grow." Fisker, however, is bearish on hybrids, despite their popularity. In his opinion, "electric cars will take over a lot of hybrids quicker than people think now." In an interesting prediction that defies more commonly held beliefs, hybrids don't have a place as a transition to EVs anymore. As infrastructure grows – along with battery capacity – people will "jump straight from gas to electric rather than make the transition to hybrid which is what a lot of car companies are betting on." It's an interesting point of view, to be sure, especially coming from a man who just recently took a pretty big leap from electric cars back to supercars whose fury is fed by fossil fuels. Take a deeper look into the mind of Henrik Fisker in the piece from Tech Insider. Related Video: