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

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Fisker's new owner working out Karma's 250 'bugs' before introducing second model

Fisker may be down, but it might not stay down forever. The company behind the Karma luxury hybrid shut down late last year and was purchased by Chinese OEM supplier Wanxiang Group, which intends to restart production. It just can't tell us when. Speaking with Automotive News Europe, Wanxgiang executives indicated they have some work on their hands, sorting out 250 "bugs" it has found in the existing Karma. Once it has those sorted out, it plans to start production again at the Valmet plant in Finland before potentially moving assembly to the plant in Delaware that Fisker had acquired from General Motors. The executives were touring the United States to inspect their battery factory in Michigan, visit the plant in Delaware and meet with government officials in Washington. Wanxiang apparently has even bigger ambitions than that, however. The latest news is that it intends to expand the rebooted Fisker with a second model sometime in 2017. The company has not provided any details as to what that form that model might take, but prior to its bankruptcy, Fisker displayed a smaller concept sedan called the Atlantic at the 2012 New York Auto Show. Fisker had previously revealed the Surf wagon and Sunset convertible concepts based on the Karma as well, but there's no telling at this point if Wanxiang has any intent on putting those into production any time in the near future.

Fisker teases electric crossover again and a high-vis turn signal

Elon Musk turns to Twitter when it's time to spread the Tesla news. Henrik Fisker perfers Facebook. The Danish-American designer took to FB once more to tease his coming electric crossover, this time showing a slice of the rear three-quarter. The feature he wants to highlight is the turn signal set into the D-pillar, which "will provide extra safety when you change lanes." There are a fair few other details to glean as well. Starting from the top, a sunroof opening appears mounted quite a bit rearward. The aperture appears small in view of Fisker promising us that pressing a button will open the roof to create "an extended open-air atmosphere;" so we expect there's another opening over the front seats. The belt line catches the eye; we'll see what it does for rear three-quarter visibility from the driver's seat. The pop-out door handles look to be illuminated by thin LED strips, and more such strips look to define the CHMSL on the tailgate spoiler and taillights. And note the curve of that seriously punched-out rear fender, designed to fit the optional 22-inch wheel. Fisker says the full-on reveal comes this December. From that point, it'll be around an 18-month wait for the production version, planned for the latter half of 2021. Many headlining features have been promised, from the "vastly spacious" and "innovative interior with new utility features," the "captivating design touches that have been traditionally reserved for supercars," and an as-yet-unidentified "new radical feature." Beyond the teasers, what we're expecting is a 300-mile range from a lithium-ion battery pack of at least 80 kWh, a single electric motor standard, two when optioned with all-wheel drive, and a price of under $40,000 to start. The electric mover will be one of three affordable EVs coming from Fisker gathered under the $129,000 EMotion flagship electric sedan. Expect more teasers before December.

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.