What’s Going On At Fisker These Days?What’s Going On At Fisker These Days?

At this point, many auto journalists have a pre-written obituary for Fisker Automotive all ready to publish if that company declares bankruptcy.
Which, so far, it hasn’t.
And according to Reuters, its remaining executives are working furiously to arrange a buyout to avoid that fate.
In fact, the company is now surviving on funds personally provided by Ray Lane, a partner emeritus at famed Silicon Valley venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins.
Lane took “delivery” of the first Fisker Karma in July 2011, in a staged event to promote the notion that the range-extended electric car had entered volume production.
He resigned from Fisker’s board three weeks ago.
A few hints to Fisker’s current status can be found in the Reuters piece, which looks at why Fisker failed to sell itself to any of several Chinese investors interested in the company.
(Miscommunication, the complexities of a Department of Energy loan, and differing opinions of its worth may all have contributed, the piece suggests.)
But, Reuters suggests, the company is pursuing a bid by Hong Kong investor and billionaire Richard Li to buy out the DoE’s loan for “pennies on the dollar,” which would remove the U.S. government involvement–and allow the company to avoid bankruptcy.
As a result, worries an unnamed source, the company appears to be stalling on a second possible rescue path.
That comes from VL Automotive, which wants to buy Fisker–and has partnered with Chinese auto-parts maker Wanxiang, which bought Fisker’s battery supplier A123 Systemsout of bankruptcy.
VL is the firm that unveiled the Destino at this year’s Detroit Auto Show, essentially a Fisker body with its electric powertrain replaced by a Corvette small-block V-8 engine.
Fisker Automotive’s namesake and cofounder, Henrik Fisker, is also bidding for the company, is connected to the Richard Li that bid as well.
Fisker had left the company in mid-March, a few weeks before it became clear that Chinese companies would not come to its rescue as envisioned.
The company laid off 75 percent of its workforce on April 5.
And there it stands for the moment, while, as Reuters notes, “the company’s value is dropping by the day.”
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