Fisker said it would be the next Apple. Instead, it joins the ash heap of EV history for the second time. Also, Titan Solar goes under, one of 16 solar bankruptcies in 2023 and 2024.
The Wall Street Journal reports Electric-Vehicle Startup Fisker Files for Bankruptcy … Again.
Fisker is the latest among a crop of once-highflying EV startups that looked to upend the traditional auto industry but have run out of charge. Pickup maker Lordstown Motors and bus manufacturer Arrival both filed for bankruptcy protection. Others are cutting costs or delaying investments, in an effort to conserve their remaining cash.
Fisker last summer started delivering its first electric model, the Ocean SUV, just as the previously hot market for battery-powered vehicles was starting to cool and signs were emerging that consumer demand for EVs was shallower than expected.
The company’s current challenges underline the hurdles facing young carmakers that have sought to emulate Tesla’s success. Many of them raised billions of dollars from investors in splashy public debuts but ran down their cash reserves as they spent heavily to develop new models and build out factories and sales centers, all while losing money on every vehicle sale.
Fisker had pitched itself as the automotive equivalent to Apple, which pays outside companies to build its products. Fisker sought to distinguish itself from more traditional carmakers by attempting to buy more of its hardware off-the-shelf and use software features as a way to set the Ocean apart from other EVs.
Fisker has said he tried to learn from the mistakes made during his first foray. He raised more money than the first time and partnered with reputable suppliers, including contract manufacturer Magna Steyr and Chinese EV battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology.
Fisker ended 2023 having produced over 10,000 Oceans but only managed to deliver around 4,900 to customers.
What Went Wrong?
Unlike Ford, GM, and the other major producers, Fisker has no internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles that make a profit to offset loses.
Interest rates have surged and junk rates even more.
Fisker lost about $150,000 per vehicle last year. 10,000 produced * $150,000 loss per vehicle is $1.5 billion.
Ultimately, what really went wrong is that demand levels are so small, it’s not possible for a startup to make money.
Musk was able to raise money but he also had carbon tax credits, personal charisma, and cheap interest rates.
If you were one of the unlucky buyers of the Ocean electric, good luck getting parts.
The WSJ comments “Fisker’s flop is another illustration that government industrial policy creates more losers than winners.”
Another Solar Company Goes Bust
Please consider Another Solar Company Goes Bust
Titan Solar, which installed thousands of systems across the U.S., informed its employees June 13 that it was “closing its doors,” having failed to secure a buyer for the company, according to an email obtained by TIME. In the email, Titan said that it had helped over 100,000 households go solar.
Titan is not the only solar installer to close up shop lately. The company, which could not be reached for comment for this story—its website has shut down—is one of 16 major solar outfits that have filed for bankruptcy in 2023 and 2024, according to Solar Insure, which offers warranties and monitoring for homeowners who have solar. They include Pink Energy and Vision Solar, which like other operators in the industry faced regulatory action and numerous consumer complaints. Customers are left with solar panels on their homes that they may or may not want. Some are working with lenders to find another company to take over the maintenance of their panels; others are just trying to get out of the loans.
In December, SunPower said there was “substantial doubt” about its ability to continue to operate. Sunlight Financial, which provided financing for residential solar, filed for bankruptcy last October. SunRun, one of the biggest residential installers in the country, has seen its share price plummet 87% from its 2020 peak; the share price of Sunnova, another national installer, has fallen 88%.
The Nevada State Contractors Board had put Titan on probation in 2023 after receiving multiple customer complaints. The company faces multiple lawsuits. In one complaint, filed in Ohio on June 13, a consumer named Thomas Jones alleges that a Titan salesman told Jones that he would have no electricity bill if he installed solar panels because of a free government program. The salesman then allegedly forged Jones’ signature on loan documents, taking out a $69,000 loan from another company without Jones’ knowledge. The loan included a finance charge of $75,000, meaning payments would add up to $166,422.80, according to the complaint. The salesman allegedly avoided scrutiny by sending the contract to an email address that was similar to Jones’, but was not his.
Free government money inevitably leads to corruption, fraud, and bankruptcies.
I wonder how Jeff Green is gonna get spare parts for his Fisker fleet??? Jeff… perhaps you need to put an ad on Auto Trader ‘Looking for abandoned useless worthless Fiskers…’
Let’s keep an eye on Tesla … the worm is turning on EVs… and Tesla has nothing to fall back on … no petrol cars… no hybrids…. and they cannot slash production without causing a panic and a death spiral
https://www.msn.com/en-au/motoring/news/incredible-tesla-factory-satellite-images-show-unsold-cars-piling-up-in-ev-graveyard/ar-BB1oaO91
Will home buyers now balk at buying homes with solar panels made by bankrupt companies?
Is the fear of a solar panel company enough to cause home buyers to balk?
How much will home sellers have to drop prices because the house has solar cells?
Well for people who have bought into these solar companies that are largely dealing in financial schemes more so than being electrical system designers and installers, it may not be a clear answer. If people have payback plans based on agreed energy purchase prices and the company goes bankrupt, I’m not sure how that would work out in the courts. Maybe the people with such plan types where they don’t own the panels may actually in a way get more of their system for free if the company goes bankrupt and it’s debts are restructured. I’m no expert in the financing side of things, but I do know a lot about the technical aspects of solar and alternative energy systems. Solar systems generally don’t have unique equipment. There are many sources and manufacturers for equipment that all generally do the same thing. If a component fails, it can be fixed or replaced by an electrician.
If the solar sales company pushed loans from third party lenders onto the homeowners, then they simply bought their system with a loan and would still need to pay the loan back, but again I’m not very knowledge about the financial setups and games these solar companies play. Solar systems can work very well and definitely have feasible uses but the home type and how a system is added to a home can also result in a system that lacks any real financial benefit if it is not meant to serve any one or more specific goals besides simply being some basic penny pinching financial or utility billing math.
If the goal is to have power when the grid is down, to be off-grid, to have power in places where there are no nearby power lines, for small and energy efficient homes, and for outright purchase up front that considers future increases in energy costs in locations with high utility bills, solar systems can definitely make sense. Many average buyers of average houses, especially in generic suburbs and urban areas, are probably not going to be technical minded or knowledgeable enough to accurately evaluate the what a solar system adds to a specific house. In a technical sense, it takes smarter buyers to see the value in more complex investments. The average person buying the average house might be too dumb to get the most out of a good solar system, too dumb to really know what they are buying, so they may not be inclined to pay for the added initial investment, but that doesn’t mean the situation has suddenly changed compared to the last decade or so.
Perhaps the WSJ would care to explain the phenomena of China then, where its industrial policy has resulted in the world’s largest manufacturing nation and has so badly outclassed the US that the latter feels compelled to cry ‘Uncle” and raise tariffs on Chinese imports such as EV’s and solar panels because American companies can’t compete. The difference between China’s industrial policy and America’s industrial policy is that China HAS an industrial policy.
Who loses from this?
Chinese Taxpayers are Subsidizing US consumers and we complain.
Excellent point!
Oh right … they also have a policy of building Ghost Cities…. brilliant stuff!!!
Yes, “ghost cities” in regions of China that, due to economic planning, the CPC recognized and anticipated a need for housing and infrastructure to accommodate the millions of people migrating to urban regions as the nation’s development increased. Portions of every major city in China were once “ghost cities” at some point over the past 30 years in anticipation of the development to come. The time to judge the soundness of the CPC’s current policies with regards to expanding housing stock and infrastructure projects in China is 20 years from now, not today.
Hahaha… that’s a good one!
Is this the ‘Field of Dreams’ strategy?
The thing is … the peasants did not move into the ghost cities… and now they are going to pieces
You really should do a bit of research before you post this nonsense… it hurts your credibility
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/10/31/crumbling-buildings-and-broken-dreams-chinas-unfinished-homes
Perhaps you would benefit from other source material with regards to China’s development. Let me suggest Godfree Roberts to name one who has been studying and visiting China since 1967 and currently lives nearby in Thailand…https://herecomeschina.substack.com/p/chinas-latest-ghost-town
I lived in HK/Shanghai for 20+ years… and operated multiple businesses throughout the country (ad continue to do so although I no longer live there)
China is f789ed.
But then name a country that is not f789ed.
Very few corporations or commercial buildings or even stupid government buildings have any solar systems. These are business people who can quickly determine that the solar systems are a money wasting gimmick.
Biden’s government industrial policy. Say no more.
“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”
Friedman
“Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.”
Friedman
“Pickup maker Lordstown Motors and bus manufacturer Arrival both filed for bankruptcy protection.”
Several months ago, Antelope Valley Transit shut down all their electric busses. L.A. bought it’s first EV fire truck, which was involved in an accident shortly after, with no further news of additional EV truck additions to the department or of the first truck in operation.
I wont be buying an ev. Just not something i’m doing with what time I have left on this nutcase planet.
This is the ONLY reason EVs exist https://fasteddynz.substack.com/p/the-three-pillars-of-bullshit
The EV is a very expensive pet rock. EV’s never made economic sense. Only the naive got suckered. The rest of us are laughing.
Depends upon the EV and especially on the company that makes them. If you buy an EV to save the planet then you are a fool. If you buy it because it fits your needs then you are not a fool.
golf carts make good EV’s
The Fisker product was expensive and bad. This has nothing to do with EVs. With an engine, it would be less expensive, but still bad. Most non-Tesla EV makers are seeing double digit sales increases in 2024 in the US.
Tesla is stockpiling new cars in order to have a giant day 1 autonomous vehicle fleet when the software is ready. They could increase sales tomorrow with price decreases. They prefer to own the vehicles. It is an interesting strategy, who knows if they will succeed.
The residential solar industry is extremely shady, borderline and sometimes actually criminal. The vast majority of solar energy in the US is at giant utility scale solar plants. They’re much lower cost and have much higher production. The utility solar industry has far fewer bad actors.
This is true.
Residential solar is extremely shady, and hide behind small print. You get solar on your house and lease the panels? Guess what, you can’t sell your home now. Congratulations!
The best way to do residential solar is to buy the panels for a 10KW system on Ebay (used, but still very good panels) for just 1500 bucks, buy a 600 dollar inverter and install them yourself. Total out of pocket for a DIYer is around 4k and it will cover all of the electric use of the home.
Unfortunately, because of government regs, you can’t actually do that and hook up to the grid, since they have to be new panels to hook up to most grids. There’s absolutely no reason for this except for the residential solar companies twisting of the governments arm to prevent homeowners from doing this.
Ask me how I know….
I’d be surprised if your home insurance company would cover your DIY solar installation.
I don’t know, I never did it since the local government owned utility company would not let me connect if I did it. They would not issue the permit to connect so I never did this, though I badly wanted it.
Based on past DIY project, including building my own tiny home from absolute scratch, including the HVAC unit, I had absolutely no problem getting insurance on these sorts of things, as long as they were properly permitted. It’s the permit that matters. As long as a state inspector signs off that the DIY project met state standards, I’ve always had no problem getting insurance. I suspect a DIY solar panel project would be the same, since it’s inspected. Now, the DIY homeowner who installs them without a permit? No, that kind of guy is going to burn his house to the ground because he doesn’t know what he’s doing if he doesn’t get a permit.
My set up would have been absolutely identical to a solar company coming in and doing it, but I would never connect.
HOwever, if I purchased NEW panels, I’d get the permit, government tax credit and would be able to connect, something I’m still thinking about, though I’d have to spend 8-10k to do that instead of just 4k.
Still, I’m very tempted.
How do you know?
Because I tried to do it and was denied the permit due to solar panel’s lobbying efforts to keep guys like me (who know how to do good electrical work, not fly by night stuff) from installing them myself.
I’m not trying to defend the utility companies but it’s largely their call and if you are in a state that requires a license to do electrical work and you are referring to a grid tied system, there is more to be concerned about for the utility company than just what yours are for your household system. If you are not allowed to install a system on your house that is non-grid-interfacing, then the rules in your area are very restrictive and the utility is being a cock block basically. They do obviously do it to an extent to keep people from being able to have more control over their personal energy generation capability, but there are safety and technical issues for the utility grid if you want a grid-tied system and it will be easier for the utility to make excuses or give true reasons for why they don’t want any or expanding numbers of grid-tied systems connected to their grid. There are considerations for grid loading fluctuations over time (daily, seasonally), electrical utility worker safety when servicing the grid, grid harmonics and distortions, and generally an older grid systems that the utilities and the government have either neglected or lacked enough foresight or were too greedy to start investing in this foreseeable need to have a more capable grid infrastructure starting at minimum, 20 years ago.
“There’s absolutely no reason for this except for the residential solar companies twisting of the governments arm to prevent homeowners from doing this.”
That IS exactly, full stop, ALL than any government, anywhere, any time ever did, do and will do.
Telsa is years away from an autonomous vehicle so it makes no sense to stockpile vehicles for years since vehicles depreciate during those years (both in money terms and in the fact that the car itself just ages sitting there).
Ya but in a few years after Tesla disappears… they might be worth some money… vintage… although replacing the batteries will be a problem…
Perhaps they could be retrofitted with a diesel engine?
“Most non-Tesla EV makers are seeing double digit sales increases in 2024 in the US.”
Going from selling one, to selling two.
Dealing with a solar company is like getting a gym membership with a lifetime guarantee, except they don’t say whether it’s your lifetime or theirs.
and so many go bankrupt. Your warranty goes out the window once they go bankrupt, but not your payments.
Consumer Reports ranks Tesla near the very bottom for quality and reliability
Next up, Rivian?
They are also fugly who buys those?
Inner-city lawyers who want a big truck so they can look like real men.
We live in the countryside and see some Rivians around here. No inner city.
I hear they are literally on the cusp already…
“Fisker had pitched itself as the automotive equivalent to Apple, which pays outside companies to build its products.”
Fisker didn’t build cars. They just raised some money, contracted a company to build the cars and then top management cashed out through a complicated series of mergers and reverse mergers.
Titan only installed solar panels and didn’t make them so you can’t see them as a green tech company but only the equivalent to the company who puts in the sprinkler system for your lawn grass.
When money is free and there is no downside for poor decision making cause Government bails out bad ideas, that is where markets have been.
Markets yet to weed themselves of that notion as this is still early innings of return to sound money. Consequences are inflationary blow offs.
When there is sound money then what happens is the practical side of life asserts itself.
ICE engines are not going to be phased out. Improved versions of them will be making inroads into replacing the old engineering models which have been around for 100 years and better.
Ability to Control combustion delivering power, is a very large hurdle to overcome when looking for a new engine to power the world.
“ Improved versions”
Concur. I think that in time all new vehicles will be EV/ICE hybrids, which are popular today.
Lucid next? Who supports the sold vehicles once a fledgling EV maker goes under?
No one does. They become large doorstops.
“Who supports the sold vehicles once a fledgling EV maker goes under?”
For $15K and below vehicles: The buyer’s kids, who now has to live on the street fellating bankster trash so that daddy can pay off “his” loan.
For vehicles priced like Fiskers and Lucids, hence bought by connected 100% backmarkers: Tax Payers who were and are less stupid and useless.
It’s America: Competent people get robbed. In order to ensure retarded Friends of The Fed can continue living in; always unearned; splendor. Despite 100.000000000 percent of them by now being dumber and more genuinely useless than actual Petrocks.
The market cleansed the zombies. AI rules the markets. Old fashion values, instinct and a careful attitude still works. Sri and Gopi Hinduja are the riches people in the UK. They followed their father’s footsteps. He never believed in documentation. If he liked a buyer or associate he will do business with them. He treated his employees with respect as a family. He never treated them as servants. Their mother instinct judged people. If she didn’t like someone they didn’t do business with him. Prakash Hinduja had an estate in Geneva. The authority sued them for harboring Indian slaves. Their lives are better than other immigrants who live in warehouses or basements.
Central planning ends up allowing grifters to profit from borrowed government largess. It ends up distorting the demand responsive economy in favor of quick profits or faulty decisions by investors, huge waste of potentially productive capital.
Chicago dead robots: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEI_7b_HT_A
Which reminds me – how did they charge the helicopter in -60?
https://fasteddynz.substack.com/p/how-did-they-charge-the-mars-ingenuity/
Consumers buy tp but not ev. Ford Mach E cut prices by 10K. Sales are down by 60% y/y. The innovating co cannibalized themselves. ICE, EV don’t matter. Lordstown is cursed. A systemic change put a spell on Lordstown. I had a customer with 6 stores who suddenly shut their doors when it was a GM town. Gov incentives or tariffs don’t matter. If the item is bad it will not sell. Bad is bad.
Sheeple can be programmed to doing anything, like lining up to receive an experimental transfection reagent.
I love it when someone uses the word “sheeple.” You and Engel should get married, but keep that weddin’ night private. LOL
Nailed it! Who injects a substance that was – we were told — created and tested at Operation Warp Speed (i.e. no long term testing… cuz there was no long term).
Rhetorical question
People need to really do some serious research before having solar cells put on their houses, or invested into otherwise. They have serious shortcomings.
I have a friend whose son put up an array of panels that would run all his lights, using propane to run appliances — tens of thousands of dollars. It worked fine during the summer, but not so much in the other seasons. He ended up spending last winter almost completely on propane (backup generator) because of the cloud cover and shorter days.
And propane is not cheap!
Should have just hook up to the local grid and completely avoided the solar cell and propane trap.
Going off grid like your friend did is not for the faint of heart or for people who aren’t handy at fixing things themselves.
Regular solar is not like that because you are still hooked to the grid.
It might be going off the grid, but it is simply an expensive way of replacing one source of energy with a more expensive one. There is no increased independence — simply replacing grid electricity for expensive solar-panel juice (and which have a limited lifespan) and propane.
No energy independence. Maybe wood fuel with an whipsaw?
Before getting Solar you absolutely need to figure out the ROI to determine if it’s worth it or not for you. In many cases it’s not.
The next step is to know how much life you have left in your current roof because if you have to replace the roof, the solar panels are basically getting ripped off and wrecked (unless you spend more money to have them professionally removed and replaced or don’t have a roof based system).
Living in South Florida where we get tons of sun and where we run AC 24x7x340 (we get maybe a month where we can run AC free) solar makes a lot of sense. But given my roof is half way through it’s life, and the ROI will take 10+ years it doesn’t make sense to get a solar system until the roof gets replaced.
You need a hurricane to rip it off so the insurance company will reimburse you for replacing it with a solar roof. If the hurricane doesn’t do it, a tornado can also. If neither happens then perhaps you could induce a roof-climbing alligator to rip it off for you for a fee.
The shady solar installers (no pun intended) figured out the “I need a new roof” angle and just built it into the price while telling you “sign now and you can get a roof for free”!
And just wait until the roof needs to be replaced and leaks after the panels are removed and replaced. One of my neighborly KLarens just got suckered into solar last year then had to have a new room and the cost overall was unbelievable. Just wait until the panels start delaminating in a couple of years as the panels slowly go bad.
Solar panels need to be cleaned. How many people have the time to clean them monthly or, are even able to get up there as they get up in age. I’ve seen many older couples with dirty panels or had them removed altogether. I’m not bashing panels either, only pointing out it’s not for everybody. There are some good points but the juice is not worth the squeeze for average people that don’t have the time or mechanical desire to deal with them.
It’s already been pointed out but being one of the “first” on these EV’s really has a high risk of being stuck with a vehicle with zero manufacturer support for parts / service once the BK’s kick in.
High price up front, high price on the back end as well as it becomes worthless overnight.
Waiting on the inevitable .gov bailout but maybe not if it was a non-union shop.
Government Motors, Fraud, and Stealantis are no doubt getting nervous as falling back to Hybrids and ICE isn’t going to be cheap when they’ve all but stopped development.
At least the ones with the solar panel hopefully have working ones and parts should be interchangeable if they ever need to work on them.
Sad but true, if it’s a union shop, the taxpayers will be on the hook to allow Quid Pro Joe to pay off his union debts (and guarantee big campaign contributions) … but if they’re not union … not so much. I think the UAW should be sending all of us taxpayers Christmas cards every year after Obama gifted them billions of our money
So Fisker Ocean buyers were “unlucky?” I can think of descriptors more appropos; one 6-letter word beginning with “s” promptly comes to mind.
Sucker
Stupid
I bet we can come up with more than just 2 such words 🙂