The Story of Henrik Fisker and the Ocean: How the Holy Father Used to Properly Design the Ocean, and How the Ocean Plunged

Fisker’s reorganization is a result of the fact that EV sales have slowed and companies that have invested in pure battery electric vehicles are finding themselves in a cash crunch.

The way that Musk does things could never be controlled by Henrik. And, according to TechCrunch, he had a much different idea of what constituted a “cool” design. For Musk, it was a minimalist design and a preponderance for extraneous software features, like video games, misnomered driver assist, and sophomoric sound effects. For Henrik Fisker, it was ticky-tacky stuff like wheel spacers, which just ended up mucking up the assembly process.

There have been other half-baked ideas, including a manufacturing partnership with Volkswagen and a deal with iPhone maker Foxconn, neither of which came to fruition. And when Fisker finally got around to actually making cars, the first (and likely only) being the Ocean SUV, more issues seemed to surface every week. There were a lot of problems including software, mechanical, internal and customer service that could not be kept up with. YouTuber Marques Brownlee gave the Ocean one of his worst reviews ever.

What he didn’t say was that much of his story was completely embellished. Henrik had “presented” the idea of an electric Popemobile to Pope Francis as part of a meet and greet that lasted a little over a minute, and the Holy Father gave no indication of his approval.

EV Sales and Liquid Liabilities: The First 10 percent of Technology is More Hard than the First 90, and When Henrik Fisker Founded The Ocean

Fisker said that the last 10 percent of technology is more difficult than the first 90.

It isn’t for lack of trying. In the early days of Fisker, Henrik proved to be very good at making wild-sounding promises that helped generate a lot of excitement and buzz about his company. The creation of a real solid-state battery was claimed to have solved one of the holy grails of EV production. These are batteries that don’t use liquid electrolytes. Instead, the cells are made of solid and “dry” conductive material.)

“Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic headwinds that have impacted our ability to operate efficiently,” the company said in a statement. “After evaluating all options for our business, we determined that proceeding with a sale of our assets under Chapter 11 is the most viable path forward for the company.”

Such negotiations, reportedly with Nissan, failed to conclude positively, an outcome signaled at the time by Fisker itself as it issued a statement saying “any transaction would be subject to satisfaction of important conditions, including completion of due diligence and negotiation and execution of appropriate definitive agreements.” The collapse of these talks reportedly resulted in a loss of $350 million in funding.

In the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in Delaware, Fisker has estimated assets of $500 million to $1 billion and liabilities of $100 million to $500 million, and among its 20 largest creditors named Adobe, Google, and SAP.

Fisker staff were caught in the middle of The Ocean’s various issues, with board member Wendy Greuel losing power on a public road after receiving the EV. According to internal documents, the company’s chief financial officer and COO, as well as the spouse of founder Henrik Fisker, also experienced a power shutdown.

Fisker’s sales model reverted back to a traditional dealership model in January, less than half of the more than 10,000 vehicles it produced last year, after initially operating a direct-to-consumer model. In March, the company slashed prices in a desperate attempt to shift inventory.