2023 Fisker Ocean Extreme Sport Utility 4d on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Hybrid Technologies LLC increases Fisker bid to $55 million

Will more money equal more Karma? In the continuing fight over the assets of extended-range plug-in vehicle maker Fisker Automotive, a Hong Kong-based investor is ready to up the stakes. Hybrid Tech Holdings has announced it will increase its bid for the maker of the Karma to $55 million. A bankruptcy court judge recently ruled that Hybrid Tech couldn't use any more than $25 million of its Fisker debt for an on-credit bid for Fisker. Hybrid Tech bought Fisker's $193 million line of credit from the US Department of Energy for $25 million. "When other shareholders ceased support, Hybrid continued to provide the financing and working capital necessary to maintain momentum," the company said in a statement. "Hybrid is working to achieve a rapid relaunch of Fisker." AutoblogGreen asked Hybrid spokeswoman Megan Grant for more details, but she said, "The statement distributed ... is the only information I am able to provide at this time." You can read the full statement below. At this point, Hybrid Tech's offer would trump Wanxiang Group's bid of $25.8 million (plus assumed debt) that was issued in late December and then boosted to $35.7 million earlier this month. Fisker favors the Hybrid Tech bid because it believes Wanxiang, which acquired most of the assets of lithium-ion battery maker A123 Systems in 2012, helped speed up Fisker's shut-down by stopping battery deliveries. Fisker filed for bankruptcy in late 2012. The auction for the remains will be held in February. Statement by Hybrid LLC Today, Hybrid Tech Holdings, LLC ("Hybrid"), a Delaware limited liability company, announced that it has modified the terms of its bid for Fisker Automotive Holdings, Inc. ("Fisker"), to reflect a purchase price of US$55 million. Hybrid intends to utilize Fisker's existing plant in Delaware to meet consumer demand and address market conditions. "Hybrid's confidence in Fisker's future is strong and unwavering. The Hybrid group has been an investor in Fisker for many years. When other shareholders ceased support, Hybrid continued to provide the financing and working capital necessary to maintain momentum, as well as taking on the US$25 million risk of purchasing the Department of Energy loan. We did so for a simple reason; we believe deeply in Fisker's technology and we stand by the talent in the company who can bring the promise of this technology to life," said Hybrid spokeswoman Megan Grant.

Fisker Pear shows up in L.A. in video and pics

With the Fisker Ocean running down production lines at Magna's plant in Graz, Austria, Henrik Fisker has decided to let the Pear out the play. The Fisker Pear will be the second car introduced to the lineup, expected to happen sometime around late 2024. The CEO said he was going to take it out for a drive in L.A., and someone caught the hatchback crossing the new 6th Street Viaduct Bridge last Friday morning. This week, a prototype dressed in the same camouflage and bright green 22-inch Slipstream wheels was caught parked in an L.A. alley, giving us an even better look.  This one's dubbed a battery-electric city car for a global audience, its name an acronym for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution. Said to challenge cars like the Volkswagen ID.3 in international markets, the Pear is actually sized like a subcompact crossover. Length is given as 4.55 meters or 179.1 inches. That's 12 inches longer than the ID.3, 9.5 inches longer than the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, half an inch longer than the 2024 Chevy Trax. A series of patent application drawings at Fiskerati give glimpses into novel features, one of them being a drawer that emerges from the front fascia, the other being a hatch that partially disappears into the bumper. The steel chassis debuting with the Pear will eventually support two more vehicles. That platform can hold one of two batteries on offer, one for local city duty, and a Hyper Range pack with an estimated 310 miles of range. Fisker has announced a price of $29,900 for the base version with the smaller battery, but we imagine it's going to be hard to hold the line on that until the Pear goes on sale. The key to making it work is keeping the parts count low, and maximizing manufacturing efficiency. The automaker hired a production exec from BMW's South Carolina facility to oversee plans at the Foxconn facility where the Pear will be built, the target being 250,000 per year by 2025. Fisker wants the Pear to get Fisker Automotive to 1 million sales by 2027. Last we heard, Fisker said it had 5,000 reservations for the little guy. Now that it's out and about, we should see and learn more soon.

Fisker is laying off 15% of staff and says it needs more cash ahead of a 'difficult year'

Electric vehicle startup Fisker is planning to lay off 15% of its workforce and says it likely does not have enough cash on hand to survive the next 12 months. The company says it is trying to find a way to raise that money as it works through a pivot from direct sales to a dealership model. "[W]e have put a plan in place to streamline the company as we prepare for another difficult year," founder and CEO Henrik Fisker said in a statement. Fisker reported more than 1,300 employees as of the end of September 2023, meaning the cut could affect close to 200 people. The company's share price plunged 35% in after-hours trading. Fisker said Thursday that it finished 2023 with $396 million in cash, though $70 million of that is restricted. The company says it is talking with one of its lenders about making "an additional investment" in the company. It also claims it is "in negotiations with a large automaker for a potential transaction which could include an investment in Fisker, joint development of one or more electric vehicle platforms, and North America manufacturing." A partnership like that will be crucial, as Fisker executives said on a call Thursday that it won't invest any more money in its future products unless it works with another automaker. That means the fates of a pickup truck, compact EV and other models that Fisker has teased are now in question. The company's financial struggles come as it is trying to move to a wholesale model built around partnerships with dealers, a shift that Fisker says has "negatively impacted" its sales so far. It's currently sitting on inventory of thousands of vehicles that are collectively worth more than $500 million. Fisker says it has received interest from around 250 dealerships but has only signed up 13 to date. Fisker has also been dealing with a number of problems with its Ocean SUV, its only model so far, as TechCrunch reported earlier this month. The company has said it resolved some issues with a software update in December and planned to fix many more in a larger 2.0 update earlier this month, but that only started making its way to customer vehicles this week. It is currently being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for reports of sudden brake failure, as well as for a handful of vehicle rollaway incidents. A number of big automakers are pulling back on their aggressive EV targets, and newer players are having trouble as well.