Fisker struggling to meet internal sales goals

Fisker is still a considerable distance away from achieving Henrik Fisker’s public commitment of dispatching 300 electric SUVs daily worldwide, as indicated by internal documents reviewed by TechCrunch.

Throughout December, the electric vehicle (EV) startup aimed to achieve an internal sales target of 100 to 200 vehicles daily in North America, its primary market for inventory and sales. However, the figures fell significantly short, with daily sales of its Ocean SUVs often hovering between one to two dozen, based on the disclosed documents from an anonymous source due to the sensitive nature of the data.

While Fisker is distributing its SUVs across several European nations with manufacturing support from Magna Steyr in Austria, North America remains its primary focus. Despite multiple attempts to reach out, the company has not provided any comments.

The revealed internal data sheds light on the company’s recent announcement about collaborating with dealerships to market its all-electric Ocean SUV in the U.S. This marks a departure from Fisker’s initial strategy of exclusively direct sales since its public listing in 2020. Notably, these revelations contrast with Fisker’s recent claims of “rising demand.”

The startup had initially planned to establish a chain of “Fisker Lounges” across North America but has only managed to launch two so far. Henrik Fisker acknowledged to The Wall Street Journal that this lack of physical presence has adversely affected sales in this region.

Fisker’s challenges are not unique in the competitive EV landscape. New entrants like Lucid have faced their own marketing hurdles, while Rivian experienced a 10% delivery dip in Q4 2023.

Despite boasting about shipping over 1,200 SUVs globally in October and setting a daily delivery record of 107 in mid-November, Fisker’s delivery momentum dwindled significantly in December.

This sluggish delivery rate has widened the disparity between Magna’s production of Fisker Ocean SUVs and actual sales. Fisker disclosed that while Magna manufactured 10,142 Oceans in 2023, only around 4,700 found buyers.

Several factors contributed to this shortfall, including software issues in the early models and supply chain challenges. Initially projecting 42,400 Ocean SUVs from Magna for the year, Fisker dramatically revised this figure downward in 2023, finally settling on approximately 10,000 to conserve working capital.

Despite these setbacks, Henrik Fisker has consistently projected optimism, asserting the company’s commitment to “ramping up sales and deliveries.” Notably, Fisker confirmed that a significant portion of the 4,700 vehicles sold last year belonged to the premium Ocean One trim, while the more affordable Ocean Sport recently made its debut in the U.K.