Fisker Inc. has run into a stumbling block in the plan to power its electric vehicles with Volkswagen’s modular EV platform, as negotiations on a “fundamental deal” that was supposed to end this month are now delayed until at least September.
In a scripted investor presentation filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday morning, founder Henrik Fisker says his company “has not achieved our goal of signing a fundamental agreement with VW by the end of July 2020 as we anticipated earlier. “The deal is supposed to block costs, production capacity, and a production schedule.
Fisker says “look[s] We hope to continue talks with VW again in September after the traditional European summer break, “but adds that Fisker Inc. remains” in conversation with several other OEMs and potential suppliers. ”
“It is a reality when working with world-class partners who may not move at our speed,” says Fisker. “This is something that we must be respectful of.”
Fisker Inc. is currently seeking to go public on the New York Stock Exchange by merging with Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp. Spartan, which was started by Apollo Global Management, is a “blank check company” or “special-purpose acquisition company “- essentially an entity with no real business that is listed on a stock exchange and then searches for a company to merge with, thereby offering a shortcut around the traditional IPO process. The script was filed with the SEC by Spartan.
While Fisker says he still believes in Fisker Inc.’s overall timeline (installments starting “as late as 2022”), time is of the essence. Spartan shareholders gave the company two years to merge with another company, and that term expires on August 14. Meanwhile, Spartan has asked those shareholders to approve an extension of the deadline until February 2021. A vote is scheduled for next week.
Fisker Inc. and Spartan announced their proposed merger earlier this month, and joined a suddenly growing list of investments and mergers in the electric vehicle space. How The edge First reported, Fisker Inc. revealed at the time that it has been in talks with Volkswagen to use the German automaker’s so-called MEB platform (which consists of scalable battery packs, electric motors, and other EV technology that drives a car. ) for years. The two signed a memorandum of understanding in November 2017 and a “collaboration agreement” in December 2018. The first prototype of Fisker Inc.’s Ocean SUV, which debuted at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show, was even built by the subsidiary of Volkswagen Italdesign on The MEB platform.
Fisker Inc. has said it wants to build two more models on the MEB platform beyond the Ocean. Volkswagen is already working with Ford on developing a vehicle powered by the MEB platform, and has spoken of partnering with other companies. But the German automaker is in the midst of remaking its executive ranks. Both Fisker Inc. and Volkswagen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Founded in 2016, Fisker originally set out to build high-end sports cars from solid-state batteries with Fisker Inc., a kind of evolution from the work it had done on its first startup, Fisker Automotive, which eventually declared bankruptcy. But she eventually focused on making more affordable (and supposedly sustainable) electric SUVs powered by more conventional lithium-ion batteries.
In order to avoid the difficulties of making an electric vehicle at the company, Fisker has said that he wants Fisker Inc. to be “active” and not vertically integrated. Instead, it plans to source as much hardware as possible from other companies so that Fisker Inc. “can focus exclusively on innovation in consumer-oriented automotive areas, which are software, sustainability, and highly emotional design.”
“We are confident that this asset light model will allow us to deliver an attractive and affordable vehicle with an unmatched digital consumer experience,” Fisker says in the script released Friday. “[W]We are looking for a business model that changes the industry and that offers Emass, or Emobility as a service, with the most sustainable emotional design to provide maximum value to the consumer, while generating the highest profits in the automotive industry. This is our commitment, and we are aiming to fulfill this. “
