Electric Dreams Go Down The Drain: Fisker Twirling Faster
Fisker did put its entire workforce, all 200 of them, on furlough, “while it continues to search for a strategic partner,” Reuters says. That search is not going so well. And quite possibly, the workforce will never come back.
Then there is the issue of the DOE loan. No, not the matter of the DOE only paying out $193 million of the promised $529. The DOE actually wants money back. There is a loan payment due in late April. The amount was not revealed.
Fisker urgently needs a savior, but those are hard to come by. Dongfeng dropped out of the bidding for Fisker, “because it would be too difficult to move production to China,” Reuters writes. Before, Geely had dropped out, which leaves Fisker with no interested suitor.
According to the story, Dongfeng was interested in Fisker’s barely used production facility, which it wanted to move to China. But soon it transpired that the loan was tied to the plant being in Delaware.
Chinese companies were a bit luckless buying car companies as a going concern. They are, however, good a snapping up the pieces after a bankruptcy. Which also would solve the problem of where the plant is located.
And just as I wanted to hit the “Publish” button, news reaches us that Fisker is looking into that option. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Fisker has hired restructuring lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis LLP to prepare for the possible bankruptcy filing, the people said, though no final decisions have been made on whether the auto maker will need to take that path. The cash-strapped company is still seeking buyers or investors that would help it avoid that outcome, the people said.”
We can always hope.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Why doesn't Walden Schmidt invest some of his copious billions in Fisker? After all, he drives one.
Such a beautiful car, it was nice to see an America company come up with something so exquisite in the high-dollar luxury field. But why did they have to ruin it with the power train the way they did (to get the Government to back it?) Can't help but think of what this car could of been with a twin-turbo V8 under the hood.
Writing was on the wall after A123. It's a shame that those cars were lost in NYC after the storm. They'll never be replaced and were probably a years worth of production.
Why only Chinese supermen come to rescue when we need it, where are Russian oligarchs and Brazilian/Mexican tycoons? Russian oligarchs will not move manufacturing to Russia - manufacturing in Russia is too expensive believe it or not. And all oligarchs interested in is money laundering but isn't DOE own interest in "green business" is money laundering? DOE gives loans to so called "green companies" which as a rule go bankrupt and money disappear except money never disappear - they end up in Swiss bank accounts and then go to Democratic Party funds. DOE does not support companies that contribute to Republican Party for the same reason.