Fisker has filed for bankruptcy in Delaware, after months of financial turmoil and rumours of investments to save the embattled automaker.
According to the filing, Fisker has between $500 million and $1 billion in assets and between $100 million and $500 million in liabilities. With the filing, Fisker will be protected from creditors as it sorts out a plan to pay back their debts.
The bankruptcy is not a big surprise, as Fisker had been struggling since 2022. The company had a successful SPAC in 2020. The SPAC raised $1 billion to help fund a partnership with Magna International to build the Fisker Ocean. However, in 2022, when the Ocean launched, the SUV lacked basic features such as cruise control, which was met with extreme criticism. Fisker promised to fix these issues via over-the-air updates, but the company never recovered.
Due to the issues with production and software bugs, forecasts were constantly slashed. Fisker is also in the midst of four different NHTSA investigations over issues with the Ocean. The final nail in the coffin may have been Marques Brownlee’s review video, which saw the YouTuber rip the vehicle for multiple issues while borrowing the vehicle, calling it the worst vehicle has ever reviewed.
This is the second go-around for Henrik Fisker, and it looks like it will end the same way as his first automotive venture, Fisker Automotive, which ended with bankruptcy in 2013. It is unclear if Fisker is heading down a restructuring and could recover, or if Fisker will end up like Lordstown Motors and sell off any remaining assets.