Having cars like the Aston Martin DB9 and V8 Vantage and the BMW Z8 in your portfolio is quite an achievement. Building your own car company from scratch beats that – even more so, when you factor in that you haven’t celebrated your 50th birthday yet.
Henrik Fisker is the man who has done all of the above. Fisker Automotive may have rolled out its Karma luxury plug-in hybrid sedan but is facing some problems, the most pressing of which is the lack of finance.
Company CEO Tony Posawatz who last summer replaced Tom LaSorda acknowledges that a small, upstart carmaker like Fisker simply can’t go it alone.
Posawatz said that the company is in talks with three interested parties concerning an alliance. These talks are at an advanced stage as, according to Posawatz, execs at the “highest levels” are “talking specifics” and a deal could be finalized in the next year.
“We are absolutely committed to making this company win longer term and the history of smaller companies living on their own in their automotive business is not stellar”, he told Automotive News in an interview.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Fisker has recruited investment bank Evercore Partners to help find investors or partners and its board has even considered filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The WSJ, citing unnamed sources, also says that the company is focused mainly in Europe and China but has, so far, failed to attract the interest of a major carmaker.
What Fisker, which despite the setbacks plans to build a new technical center in the Midwest, has to offer to any potential partner, said Posawatz, is its extended-range EV technology, it’s plug-in hybrid components and the expertise it has gained in building such vehicles.
He admitted that the most enticing scenario for Fisker would be to license its powertrain, which already meets the strict U.S. 2025 federal emission regulations, to other companies looking for a quick way to attain that technology.
By Andrew Tsaousis
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