Fisker is far from meeting CEO and founder Henrik Fisker’s publicly stated goal of delivering 300 electric SUVs per day worldwide, according to internal documents seen by TechCrunch.
The EV startup spent much of December aiming to hit a domestic sales target of between 100 and 200 vehicles per day in North America, where most of its inventory and sales efforts are located. Fisker fell well short of that target, often selling only one to two dozen of its Ocean SUVs a day here, according to the documents, which were provided by a source who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Fisker delivers its SUVs to many European countries, and contract manufacturer Magna Steyr manufactures them in Austria. However, the North American market was the startup’s priority from the beginning. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
Internal evidence explains why the company announced on Thursday that it wants to work with dealerships to sell its electric Ocean SUV in the U.S. — a shift in strategy from the direct-sales-only model that Fisker has championed since going public in 2020. The documents also conflict with ongoing company assurances of “increasing demand,” as claimed in Thursday’s press release.
The startup had plans to open showrooms across North America as part of its direct sales model, but has only opened two of its “Fisker Lounge” flagships to date. Henrik Fischer said the Wall Street Journal on Thursday that the lack of a physical footprint has hurt sales here.
Fisker isn’t alone in struggling to find demand for its electrics. Building a brand and gaining market share has been a challenge for any new market entrant. In particular, Lucid has repeatedly admitted that the biggest hurdle after entering production was marketing its luxury sedan. Even Rivian’s deliveries fell 10% in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Fisker previously he claimed shipped more than 1,200 SUVs worldwide in October and on November 16 said series a “new milestone” of 107 deliveries in a day, attributing the success to “executing a new distribution strategy.” But it has struggled to maintain or achieve that pace through December, the documents show.
The slow pace of deliveries has widened the gap between the amount of Fisker Ocean SUVs Magna produces and the number of sales. Fischer on Friday revealed that Magna built 10,142 Oceans last year and delivered only about 4,700.
Magna started production in November 2022 and Fisker didn’t start deliveries until June 2023, which also contributed to this gap. Software problems in older cars contributed to the delay; Fisker also cited issues with one of its suppliers as a reason for a slower-than-expected rollout.
Fisker entered the year claiming Magna would produce 42,400 Ocean SUVs, however — a number it said rose to late 2022 due to strong demand in the US and Europe.
This requirement has not yet been met.
Instead, Fisker repeatedly lowered that amount in 2023, finally announcing on Dec. 1 that Magna would only make about 10,000 total for the year to allow the startup to free up working capital. Even after this significant drop, Henrik Fisker maintained public confidence, saying in a statement that his company continued to “accelerate sales and deliveries.”
The company said last week that the “majority” of the 4,700 vehicles sold last year were the range-topping Ocean One. The first unit of a more affordable trim, the Ocean Sport, was recently shipped to the first customer in the UK
