Fisker is stopping work on new electric vehicles until it partners with another automaker.
The company announced its plans alongside its 2023 and Q4 earnings this week. While the company’s revenue increased, its gross margin was negative 35%, and the company’s stock lost $1.23 per share.
In January, Fisker announced plans to pivot to a Dealer Partner Model versus a direct-to-consumer offering. At the time, the company said that it had been in discussions with numerous potential dealers since late November 2023 and expected to have approximately 100 dealer locations throughout Europe and North America. Currently, Fisker says it has received 250 expressions of interest from dealers in North America and Europe and 13 dealers have signed dealer agreements with the company.
“2023 was a challenging year for Fisker, including delays with suppliers and other issues that prevented us from delivering the Ocean SUV as quickly as we had expected,” Chairman and CEO Henrik Fisker said in a statement. “We also encountered unexpected headwinds in our efforts to establish a direct-to-consumer sales model in both North America and Europe at the same time. There were several unanticipated challenges, including rising interest rates, finding enough skilled labor, and identifying appropriate real estate locations to make the DTC model function effectively.”
As it shifts to that dealer-focused model, Fisker says it plans to lay off 15% of its workforce, which represents roughly 200 employees.
The company says it’s currently in negotiations with a large automaker that might invest in Fisker or develop one or more electric vehicle platforms with the company; however, “closing of any transaction would be subject to satisfaction of important conditions, including completion of due diligence and negotiation and execution of appropriate definitive agreements.”
After a tumultuous decade pushing a doomed $100K+ plug-in hybrid, the Fisker brand re-emerged at CES 2020 with the battery-powered Fisker Ocean SUV. Deliveries of the Ocean to US consumers didn't start until more than three years later. In 2023, Fisker produced 10,193 Fisher Oceans; of that, 4,929 were delivered to customers. The company says it expects to deliver approximately 20,000 – 22,000 Oceans worldwide in 2024.