Fisker Unable To Migrate EV Data To New Owner’s Server

The tragic downfall of a notable American electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer continues this week, amid the possible derailing of a firesale of its remaining EV stock.

Fisker had entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2024, after the EV maker had already halted vehicle production, and had drastically slashed prices in the US by over 50 percent.

Shortly after that, Fisker asked a bankruptcy judge overseeing its Chapter 11 proceedings to approve the sale of more than 3,000 Ocean electric SUVs in its inventory for about $14,000 per car to a vehicle-leasing company.

Emergency objection

The deal involved the offloading of 3,321 electric vehicles to New York-based American Lease for $46.25 million.

The deal was approved, but now seems to be in great jeopardy due to “multiple logistical problems and other challenges.”

American Lease has already handed over “tens of millions of dollars”, but a last minute revelation seems like it could derail Fisker’s liquidation plan.

American Lease in an emergency objection filing to Fisker’s liquidation hearing, revealed that “Buyer representatives were informed by Debtors that operational control of the Fisker vehicles subject to the Sale cannot, as a technical matter, be “ported” from the Fisker server to which the vehicles are currently linked to a distinct server owned and/or controlled by Buyer.”

What this essentially means is that Fisker is unable to transfer the information that is connected to each EV to a new server owned by American Lease. This data is needed to operate the vehicles after Fisker is officially wound up.

“Now, on the eve of the October 9 Hearing, Buyer has just been informed that Porting of the Purchased Vehicles will not be possible,” the filing reads. “Buyer cannot overstate the significance of this unwelcome news, conveyed to it only after it has paid the estates tens of millions of dollars under the Purchase Agreement.”

“It is unclear at the present time what, if anything, Debtor representatives have known about the impossibility or impracticability of implementing Porting of the Purchased Vehicles, and when they learned or otherwise knew of that critical information,” the filing states.

“The failure to apprise Buyer (until the last possible moment) of the critical inability to implement Porting of the Purchase Vehicles carries the very real possibility of extreme and undue prejudice to Buyer should the October 9 Hearing proceed forward as currently scheduled,” the filing reads.

Liquidation hearing

American Lease has therefore sought to delay Fisker’s liquidation hearing.

“Buyer has asked the Debtors to voluntarily adjourn the October 9 Hearing for a short and reasonable period of time but such requests have been refused,” the filing reads.

Fisker’s Chapter 11 filing estimated that its liabilities were between $100 million and $500 million, with between 200 and 999 creditors.

Its 20 largest creditors reportedly included Adobe, Alphabet’s Google and SAP.

“Buyer therefore respectfully requests this Court for entry of an order granting a short and reasonable adjournment of the October 9 Hearing so that Buyer is afforded a full, fair, and meaningful opportunity to prepare for, participate in, and challenge confirmation of the Plan.”

There is no word at the time of writing if this liquidation hearing adjournment has been granted.

Earlier this week the landlord of Fisker’s California headquarters had reportedly complained the site had been left in complete disarray, with piles of debris, full sized clay EV models, and “a substantial amount of hazardous waste.”

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is also said to be investigating Fisker.

Chapter 11

It is been a sad ending for Fisker, after the EV startup in January 2024 delivered less than half of the 10,000 plus vehicles it had produced in 2023.

In an effort to turnaround its fortunes, Fisker had turned to a dealership-based distribution model, and abandoned the direct-to-consumer approach pioneered by Tesla.

Then in February Fisker had signalled it was experiencing difficulties and also failed to secure an investment from a big name car maker (reportedly Nissan), forcing it to reduce its operations.

It will be the second failure for Danish car designer Henrik Fisker. His first attempt to start an electric car company was called Fisker Automotive Inc, but it ended in 2013, after a battery failure for the Fisker Karma resulted in a huge recall.

Other EV makers have also filed for bankruptcy protection, including Lordstown Motors in the September 2023. In March 2024, it emerged from bankruptcy restructuring as Nu Ride Inc, based in New York City.

Other EV makers that have filed for bankruptcy in the past two years include Proterra and Electric Last Mile Solutions.