Fisker Seeks Bankruptcy Liquidation

U.S. electric vehicle startup Fisker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with a court in Delaware, just a year after the start of deliveries of its debut model, the Ocean compact crossover.

Fisker does not intend to reorganize under bankruptcy but is looking to liquidate its assets. The company will seek approval of its liquidation plan at a court hearing scheduled for October 9.

The process is not going smoothly as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Fisker and has sent multiple subpoenas to the company, Reuters reported on Friday, citing filings made by the regulator.

The central issue is a lack of clarity regarding how the company's financial records will be maintained after the liquidation process is complete.

The SEC in its filing also stated that more subpoenas may need to be sent to Fisker, though no reasons were given.

Fisker was founded in 2016 by Henrik Fisker, the talented automotive designer who also founded a previous EV startup by the name Fisker. That original Fisker also went bankrupt, and its assets were sold to Chinese battery company Wanxiang, which used them to create the company that operates today as Karma.

The new Fisker was one of the more promising EV startups not long ago, but the company faced supply chain issues that hindered production scaling. Many of the delivered Oceans also experienced quality issues.

When it filed for bankruptcy protection, Fisker estimated the value of its remaining assets to be between $500 million and $1 billion. Some of the assets included roughly 3,000 unsold Oceans, though most of them were sold after a judge approved their sale in July.