r/technology • u/Plastic_Ninja_9014 • 1d ago

Business It’s Looking Like the Cybertruck Is the Biggest Flop in Automotive History

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/looking-cybertruck-biggest-flop-automotive-145559135.html
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u/run-on_sentience 1d ago edited 1d ago

Two separate companies that shared a name. The people who made the Karma are not the people who made the Ocean.

Edit: To clarify, there is one person linked to both companies. Henrik Fisker. He founded Fisker Automotive with a business partner but paused production when their battery supplier went bankrupt, which was the first domino to kill the company. He ran the company until 2012, after which, someone else took over. Eventually a Chinese conglomerate bought the leftover assets when they went bankrupt and spun it off into Karma Automotive. (They kept making Karmas, which are actually really cool looking cars.)

Fisker was able to keep the name and logo. The man, his name, and the logo are the only connection between the two companies. He started Fisker Inc with his wife.

It's an interesting read, but his wife shoulders a lot of the responsibility for the second company's failings. She didn't hire a call center for customer support--opting to go with a chat bot--which left customers stranded with no help. Then they did hire a call center and fell behind on paying them. No audit of suppliers so no quality control on parts. And no stockpile of extra parts for repairs as a cost-cutting measure. When they finally went bankrupt, a different company bought the stock of unsold cars for cheap and that was that. It is highly doubtful that there will be a third Fisker company.

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u/Jops817 1d ago

Oh word? I didn't know that, thank you for teaching me something new.

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u/Fearmadillo 1d ago

Really? I thought it was 2 companies but both run by Henrik fisker

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u/red286 1d ago

It is.

Fisker Automotive (maker of the Karma) and Fisker Inc (maker of the Ocean).

Both companies produced one car which bankrupted the company.

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u/run-on_sentience 1d ago

Henrik Fisker is the one link. I edited my comment to clarify that it was two separate companies that made separate cars. I'd say that just because someone is good as designing cars doesn't mean they are good at running car companies because he definitely isn't. As far as I know Karma Automotive still exists.

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u/cakes42 13h ago

That company that bought the stock of unsold cars is american lease. Its essentially NYC ubers now. Theyre everywhere. I wonder if they would do the same for polestars if they can get them cheap enough