Facing major losses in 2023, Fisker is eyeing investment from a major OEM to continue its operations.
After releasing its fourth-quarter financial results last Thursday, it’s clear Fisker Inc. is facing serious financial hurdles bringing its EVs to market. In fact, CEO Henrik Fisker announced a transition from a direct-sales model to a dealer partnership model late last year with the intent to boost sales as the company faced a $463.6 million loss in Q4 2023 alone. Now, Fisker is reportedly in rapidly advancing talks with Nissan to provide a financial lifeline in exchange for access to Fisker’s technology — specifically, it’s electric truck platform, according to reporting by Reuters.
During last week’s earnings call, Fisker warned it may not be able to continue operating under the existing circumstances. In addition to the developing talks, which neither automaker has confirmed as of Monday morning, the company said it would lay off 15% of its workforce to stem its massive financial losses. After briefly climbing to $0.73 per share ahead of the earnings presentation and release, the company’s stock fell by 35% to $0.48 per share in Monday morning trading.
“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,” said Henrik Fisker. “On the strategic front, Fisker is in negotiations with a large automaker for a potential transition which could include an investment in Fisker, joint development of one or more electric vehicle platforms, and North America manufacturing. The 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.”
At the moment, the consensus is that Fisker is in talks with Nissan to manufacture the ‘Alaska’ electric pickup truck in the U.S. Nissan currently has manufacturing facilities in Mississippi and Tennessee. The Japanese automaker also helped pioneer the modern EV industry by way of the Leaf in 2010, while it launched the Ariya in the U.S. in 2022.
This deal reportedly aims to shore up Fisker’s entry into the electric truck segment, for which the competition continues to heat up year-over-year. In addition to the Rivian R1T, the Alaska would jump into the same fray as the Tesla Cybertruck among models in the midsize class. Fisker originally debuted the truck last year, saying it would launch in 2025 with a price tag around $45,400. However, the company says it will not allocate resources to the project until it lands a strategic partnership deal.
Depending on whether the two parties can fast-track a deal — again, nothing is confirmed at this point — it could allow Fisker to ramp up Ocean production and deliveries, launch its electric pickup and give Nissan its own EV truck on the Alaska’s platform as it, too, aims to build out its electric offerings over the coming years.
Since this is a developing story, we will provide updates when we see announcements from either (or both) automakers.
