Why we told three million people not to buy a Fisker
Never kick a person when they’re down. A sensible mantra, but tricky to apply when you’re running an editorial team that’s consumer-first. Over Easter weekend, a Google search for “Fisker” showed their URL followed by the “Top stories”: “Edmunds – Do not buy a Fisker.” It sounded tough on an internal doc; it read downright brutal on the web page.
But it’s the best consumer advice. The harsh reality is that buying an unfinished, software-led EV from a company facing bankruptcy would be foolhardy, even allowing for recent price reductions of up to $24K. We know this because in January, I signed off spending $69,012 on a Fisker Ocean Extreme. Today, it’s worth $21K according to our parent company, CarMax. That’s a depreciation of 69.6 percent in four months and 4,220 miles. Suboptimal.
The decision was in line with our policy of buying and owning the latest generation of EVs. We’ve purchased an example of every Tesla since the Model S, and our current fleet includes the latest Model 3, a Lucid and a Rivian, as well as examples of EVs from two of those lesser-known startups, Ford and GM. The cars are shared among our 40-strong editorial team as a real-world ownership experience.
Our Fisker journey has, to a large extent, echoed that of our early Teslas, the Lucid Air and Rivian R1T. The cars are launched early to get the cash flowing, then completed and/or fixed through over-the-air updates. But if Fisker goes down, who will complete the code?
It’s a real shame. Fisker took the bold, admirable step of trying to jump straight into the mass market, rather than start with wealthy early adopters looking for the shiny new thing. That means chasing volume at lower margins against the industry big hitters. And that’s a tough ask.
When Tesla launched the Model 3, they were so far ahead of the curve that they had the time and goodwill to fix the dodgy build quality. Even then, it nearly took down the company. Fisker was never going to have that luxury. There is much to like about the design, and the underlying build quality of the Magna Steyr-produced Ocean is good but the electronics are not.
Why would a consumer take the plunge when there’s a fail-safe alternative from Tesla, Hyundai, Ford and many others? In my own family, we considered a Fisker but leased a Genesis GV60 because this was the car for the school run.
Right now, it feels like a bit of a death spiral, and there’s no denying that our coverage has added to the unease. At the last count, we’d reached over 3 million consumers across Edmunds.com, our social channels and third-party media. That’s really tough on the many talented people at Fisker who face an uncertain future, but as a car shopping brand our core responsibility is to current and would-be Ocean customers.
As I write, there is still a chance that Fisker could be rescued and a promising car completed. Let’s hope that happens for all concerned.
https://edmu.in/4cA0jeu
