Fisker plans more layoffs as cash dwindles and bankruptcy looms

Fisker says it plans more layoffs less than two months after cutting 15% of its workforce, as the EV startup scrambles to raise money to stay alive. Fisker hopes to file for bankruptcy protection within the next 30 days if it cannot raise that money, according to a regulatory filing from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The imperiled company said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it had only $54 million in cash and equivalents as of April 16, with an additional $11.2 million that could not be accessed immediately. . Fisker said in the filing that it is currently trying to raise money to repay a loan it defaulted on in order to avoid bankruptcy. As of mid-January, the outstanding balance was more than $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 1,300 at the end of September 2023. The company also announced Tuesday that it would “reduce its physical footprint.”

This follows Fisker’s announcement Monday evening that a second member of its board of directors will be leaving, with the first expected at the end of March. The company also hired a chief restructuring officer who is now solely responsible for approving Fisker’s budget, as well as the decision-making process in the event of a sale of the Fisker business.

Fisker finds itself on the verge of bankruptcy following the difficult launch of its first electric vehicle, the Fisker Ocean SUV, which began in June 2023.

The Ocean has been hampered by numerous problems, including software bugs, reports of sudden power loss and brake failure, and poor customer service, as TechCrunch reported in February. Fisker struggled to meet internal sales goals and lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for some of the vehicles it sold, triggering an internal audit that resulted in the majority of that money being recovered. He has spent the last few months trying to move toward a dealership model.

Ocean 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 suspended production of the SUV. In the meantime, it has slashed prices of its existing inventory by up to 39% in a bid to generate short-term cash. The company was also delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

If Fisker ends up filing for bankruptcy protection, it would be founder Henrik Fisker’s second auto startup to do so. Its previous effort, Fisker Automotive, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013.