Fisker electric cars sold in France are doing badly, very badly. Latest episode to date: the car manufacturer would have lost track of several million dollars. The cause: customer checks not cashed on time or simply lost. A problem that is only the visible face of the iceberg.
If you follow automotive news at all, you must surely know that the car manufacturer Fisker, which sells its electric car, the Fisker Ocean, in France, is in a very delicate position. The manufacturer is on the verge of bankruptcy and bad news continues in its last days.
Millions of dollars untraceable
An investigation carried out by the American media Techcrunch tells us that the American car manufacturer has lost track of several million dollars. The reason: many customers would have left with the brand new car, without paying. Or rather, by leaving a check that was never cashed, or with an expired payment method.
Employees of the company announce that “ checks were not cashed on time, or simply lost » while another adds “ checks, credit card receipts and payment information were often difficult to find months after a car was sold“.
According to sources close to the matter, the shortfall could be counted in several million dollars. Fisker had to set up a dedicated team to track these missing payments and follow up with customers if necessary. A thankless task, which required the implementation of an audit. Started in December, it lasted several months.
Accounts impossible to achieve
In addition to this internal audit, the American manufacturer commissioned the firm PwC to carry out an external audit with the aim of preparing legal financial files, such as balance sheets. The company specializing in this task, according to sources preferring to remain anonymous, had difficulty getting their hands on the right documents. Sometimes, Fisker even announced that it did not have the necessary tax and financial information.
The cause: files that are not necessarily complete during sales and are sometimes sent to different locations. It is then impossible to centralize them at the company’s global headquarters. In other words, Fisker had neither the skills nor the internal processes to produce the company’s accounts, to use the terms of sources close to the matter.
So much so that the company would not know with certainty how much money it would have made in 2023 from the sale of its electric cars. Which would be one of the reasons why Fisker has not yet published its 2023 financial results.
Customers who cannot register their cars
But the problems go even further. Fisker would have been unable, for certain customers, to complete registration requests on time. These customers therefore drove for several months with temporary registration plates. And they were then forced to ask Fisker to renew them. Other customers had to wait for their car to be registered even though it was ready for delivery.
The manufacturer hired consultants in February 2024 to put an end to these registration problems. But the investigation specifies that “ the work was immense, the team had to work on some orders which dated from August 2023“.
For the moment, Fisker has paused production of its electric car. But the company still sells its Ocean SUV. In the United States, it is even possible to buy it with a huge discount of $24,000. A deal too good to be true? Certainly.