Amidst all the not-so-great situations currently surrounding Fisker and which range from car fires to the ushering in of a new CEO, another bombshell has just hit home for the California based company. They need $150 million (€121 million), and they need it soon.
Since their inception in 2007, the Fisker brand has raised over $1 billion (€809 million) in private finances to back its automotive projects, but now they need an extra cash flow in order to finalize production of their newest Atlantic model in the very near future.
Having been denied access to more than half of a $529-million government loan (€428 million) government loan in the past, Fisker was unable to fund the newly opened Delaware plant where the Atlantic was slated for future production.
The company was then forced to tenuously squeeze-out $400 million in funding from private investors, now, the daunting task of an extra $150 million could prove even more difficult.
In a recent interview with Reuters, Ray Lane, a Fisker managing partner at venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, had little details as to how they were going about finding all these extra funds.
“We need money on our balance sheet, and we need money to fund the development of the next car. We’re raising some of that money now, and some later.”
While Fisker has yet to officially release a production date on the Atlantic, rumors say that the project has been pushed back to mid-2014 as the 2015 model year.
By Jeff Perez
8 Comments:
Fisker automobile was an ambitious project to begin with. Fisker's personal talents were never in question, but attacking the high-end of alternative power vehicles with limited resources makes me question the longterm validity of the company as a whole. Like Tesla, there is little to no room for error...unlike Porsche who has access to far greater resources. Will Fisker be the next DeLorean?
Probably not, since DeLorean made cool cars that people wanted to drive.
You would think they would iron out the bugs in the first model before they tackle new challenges.
Jeff, please correct your link "battery related fires" - you (Carscoop) published a more recent article that says the cause is still unknown but that Fisker's initial findings are that the fire was NOT battery related:
http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2012/08/fisker-investigating-latest-karma-fire.html
Fisker has made a similar statement about the previous fire in a Texas garage, while NHTSA has not published any findings.
Also, your comment that they were denied the $529M loan is incorrect. They received the loan and $192M of it was disbursed. The remainder was indefinitely frozen in May 2011 after they failed to meet milestones for the Karma. There have been about 60 applicants to the loan program, most of whom have been denied loans or withdrew their requests, but Fisker was one of only five loans to have been approved/closed, and the only one suspended.
Also, the "over $1 billion" in private financing was to back both the Karma and Atlantic projects, not just the Karma.
Also, please correct "Cuafield".
#corrections
Jeff, please correct your link "battery related fires" - you (Carscoop) published a more recent article that says the cause is still unknown but that Fisker's initial findings are that the fire was NOT battery related:
http://carscoop.blogspot.com/2012/08/fisker-investigating-latest-karma-fire.html
Fisker has made a similar statement about the previous fire in a Texas garage, while NHTSA has not published any findings.
Also, your comment that they were denied the $529M loan is incorrect. They received the loan and $192M of it was disbursed. The remainder was indefinitely frozen in May 2011 after they failed to meet milestones for the Karma. There have been about 60 applicants to the loan program, most of whom have been denied loans or withdrew their requests, but Fisker was one of only five loans to have been approved/closed, and the only one suspended.
Also, the "over $1 billion" in private financing was to back both the Karma and Atlantic projects, not just the Karma.
Also, please correct "Cuafield".
I can tell you how Ray plans to do it: squeeze the original investors with forced dilution for those who don't want to go all in. I'm not moved by this at all.
Fiskers are luxury Volts, bigger on the outside and smaller on the inside. At least they can keep going after the electric charge runs out, unlike Teslas. Both companies are modern day Tuckers - although if Tucker had access to similar levels of investment maybe it could have made it. And that was back when the engineering content of any car was way less than needed today.
Both companies, if they survive at all, will continue on as subcontractors and consultants to Toyota and Smart etc. Their own cars will soon be a thing of the past. It's rather amazing that either company has gotten as far as they have on a wing and a prayer and a bunch of federal money and wishfully thinking inverstors. Hauling around tons of batteries is still not a sensible concept.
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