Bankrupt EV start-up Fisker wants to sell its 3,300 unsold electric vehicles at an 80% discount to a company that rents cars to NYC Uber and Lyft drivers
Michael Tullberg
- Failed electric vehicle maker Fisker is seeking court approval to sell its inventory for cheap.
- Techcrunch reported its cars would be sold to American Lease for 20% of what others paid for them.
- The company says it needs to start selling the vehicles soon so it can make payroll this month.
Fisker, the bankrupt would-be Tesla rival, has sought court permission to unload its unsold US cars for a fraction of the price they were being sold for last year, according to court records and news reports.
The company wants to sell just under 3,300 Ocean electric SUVs to American Leasing, lawyers said at a Wednesday hearing reported by TechCrunch.
American provides vehicles to New York City's thousands of Uber and Lyft drivers. The Wall Street Journal reported last month America's interest in acquiring the Fisker fleet.
Fisker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June after years of turmoil and unprofitable operations. Even as it prepared to deliver vehicles last year, it was scavenging parts from the personal EVs of the company's CEO and its CFO, Business Insider reported last month.
Fisker's $46.25M deal
The vehicles to be purchased by American Leasing would be sold as-is, Fisker said, with some of them in good condition but others in need of repair.
The deal is valued at up to $46.25 million, an executive said in a court filing, plus certain other incidental costs. The average cost of each Fisker vehicle sold on those terms would be about $14,000, a far cry from the $70,000 price tag of a fully-loaded vehicle before the company began aggressively discounting last year.
Citing records from the bankruptcy case, TechCrunch reported that Fisker still has 179 people on payroll, a number it plans to trim. It said selling 200 of the vehicles to American Leasing on an abbreviated timeline would bring in crucial cash to make payroll next month.
There's no guarantee that the deal will go through, however. Some creditors, including people who previously bought Fisker vehicles, are worried that the company will run out of resources to pay its debts and support owners.
"The long and short of it is there are ways that funds can be captured," said Linda Richenderfer, a lawyer for the US Trustee's Office, which is a part of the Justice Department that oversees bankruptcies, at the Wednesday hearing.
Fisker was ordered to provide an update on July 9. The company's request to sell its fleet is set to be argued next Thursday, according to a filing entered on July 4.