Fisker says it plans more layoffs less than two months after cutting 15 percent of its workforce as the EV startup tries to raise cash to stay afloat. Fisker expects to file for bankruptcy protection within the next 30 days if it can’t come up with that money, according to a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The threatened company told the regulatory filing On Tuesday it had just $54 million in cash and cash equivalents as of April 16 and another $11.2 million that is not immediately accessible. Fisker said in the filing that it is currently trying to raise money to pay off a defaulted loan in order to avoid bankruptcy. The outstanding balance in mid-January was north of $300 million.
Fisker still employed 1,135 people worldwide as of April 19, according to the filing. That’s down from 1,560 at the end of 2022 and about 1,300 at the end of September 2023. The company also said on Tuesday that it would “reduce its physical footprint.”
This is followed by Fisker’s announcement On Monday afternoon a second member of its board of directors left the company, with the first coming at the end of March. The company has also hired a chief restructuring officer who is now solely responsible for Fisker’s budget approval, as well as the decision-making process for any sale of the Fisker business.
Fisker is on the brink of bankruptcy after a troubled launch of its first electric vehicle, the Fisker Ocean SUV, due in June 2023.
The Ocean has been hampered by numerous problems, including buggy software, reports of sudden power loss and brake shutdowns, and poor customer service, as TechCrunch reported in February. Fisker struggled to meet domestic sales goals and lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for some of the vehicles it sold, prompting an internal audit that helped recover the majority of that money. He spent the last few months trying to shift to a dealership model.
Oceanus is now the subject of three separate federal investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The company has not issued any recalls, but has stopped production of the SUV. Meanwhile, it cut prices on its existing inventory by as much as 39% in an effort to generate short-term cash. The company has also been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
If Fisker does eventually seek bankruptcy protection, it would be founder Henrik Fisker’s second auto startup to do so. His previous effort, Fisker Automotive, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2013.
