2023 Fisker Ocean on 2040-cars

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Auto startups chasing Tesla race past red flags to go public

Missed out on the Tesla rally but still want to surf the electric vehicle wave? A stream of EV-related startups backed by blank-check firms is lining up to go public so there are plenty of choices. But like Tesla in the early days, few have products ready to sell or any likelihood of generating significant revenue anytime soon. Instead, investors will be relying on rosy production, sales and revenue forecasts for new cars, trucks and batteries, all set to be jostling for a slice of markets that will be far more crowded than when Tesla's cars first hit the road. Take Fisker Inc, for example. It was launched in 2016, just three years after the bankruptcy of its predecessor and early Tesla rival Fisker Automobile. In July, Fisker Inc announced a $2.9 billion reverse merger deal with Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), and is planning to go public later this year. It has no revenue and its Fisker Ocean electric sports-utility vehicle (SUV) is at least two years away from production in a project heavily dependent on nailing down deals with partners who will build the car and provide key components. That's not particularly unique for young companies in the sector looking to use SPACs to go public and bypass the scrutiny of a traditional IPO process, according to company presentations and interviews with executives and investors. That also didn't seem to be an issue earlier this year when U.S. electric truck maker Nikola Motors used a SPAC to go public. Shares in the company that hopes to generate revenue next year almost trebled after listing on the Nasdaq exchange. But they slumped when a short-seller questioned whether founder Trevor Milton had made false claims about Nikola's technology, forcing the 38-year-old entrepreneur to step down as executive chairman — and making some investors more cautious. Nikola and Milton have publicly rejected the accusations and have threatened to take legal action against the short-seller, Hindenberg Research. "Good storytelling is an important component of being a good founder and entrepreneur — but it better not be the only component," says Evangelos Simoudis, managing partner and founder of startup investor Synapse Partners. 'IT'S A FORECAST' Fisker Inc's founder Henrik Fisker is well known in the industry for designing sports cars such as Aston Martin's Vantage, and for his failed EV firm Fisker Automobile that went bust in 2013 after burning through more than $1 billion.

Fisker asset sale may not include name, logo

Always read the fine print before you sign the contract. That platitude is taking on new life as word comes that the winning bidder for bankrupt plug-in hybrid manufacturer Fisker may not actually earn the rights to use the company's name and logo. According to Delaware Online, that's because Fisker Automotive doesn't actually own either – they're the property of a different company called Fisker Coachbuild, LLC, and they have been used under license by the carmaker since 2008. This interesting bifurcation of assets brings to mind a previous bit of auto history - Rolls-Royce and Vickers. As it turns out, Fisker Coachbuild not only designs cars and components, it also has the merchandising rights to the Fisker name and logo for things like apparel and branded tchotchkes. How did this happen? According to the report, Coachbuild is a Fisker stockholder, and in 2008, a contract was signed by Bernhard Koehler (co-founder of Fisker and then-chief operating officer of Coachbuild) and designer and company namesake Henrik Fisker. Koehler and Fisker are actually in the logo, in a fashion, since it is supposed to represent the two men (the vertical lines) looking at the sunset (the red half circle) over the ocean (blue). Fisker Coachbuild attorneys have now put the bankruptcy court on official notice about their ownership of these key assets, and it's unclear if this news will affect the actions of leading bidders Wanxiang America, Inc. and Hybrid Tech Holdings. Coachbuild does sound somewhat conciliatory, saying "...it is likely that Coachbuild will consent to the assignment of the rights provided for under the Trademark Agreement as part of the proposed sale" while simultaneously "reserving its rights under applicable law to bar the assumption and assignment of Trademark Agreement without its prior written consent." This interesting bifurcation of assets brings to mind a previous bit of auto history. Back in 1998, British industrial conglomerate Vickers executed a now-legendary bit of wheeling-and-dealing that saw it sell the physical assets of luxury automaker Rolls-Royce to the Volkswagen Group. We say 'legendary' because it only sold the physical assets to VW – not the trademarks associated with them. Those trademarks included the Rolls-Royce name, famed double-R iconography and other assets – assets Vickers subsequently sold to BMW.

Henrik Fisker previews secretive car with gorgeous butterfly doors

Earlier this month, Henrik Fisker announced plans for a 400-mile electric car that would follow up on the failed Fisker Karma. Fisker recently took to Twitter where he posted a picture of a mysterious vehicle with magnificent dihedral (also known as butterfly) doors. This, then, is our first look at Fisker's upcoming electric vehicle. So far, everything looks good. Besides the dihedral doors, there's not much to go off of. Dihedral doors aren't new, as McLaren uses the units on its entire range (as do other cars, mainly exotics), but the rear-hinged ones are unique. We've seen suicide doors and falcon doors on four-door vehicles, but no rear-hinged dihedral ones intended for production that we can recall. According to Fisker, the upcoming model uses the fancy doors for better ingress and egress. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Other than the nifty doors, the front fascia has what looks to be LED accent or running lights on the side, while the rear taillights are also LED units. As Fisker claimed earlier this year, the upcoming electric car will be a "spiritual successor" to the Karma and that shows in the profile of the car, although the teased car has shorter front and rear overhangs. Fisker hasn't released a lot of information on the upcoming vehicle, besides that it would be "sporty and spacious." The outline of the vehicle definitely looks sporty, but there's no way to say if it's spacious from the one image. The new vehicle will be Fisker's first under his new company called Fisker Inc. The battery technology for the vehicle is currently being developed at UCLA, by the company's own battery division known as Fisker Nanotech. The vehicle is expected to be revealed late next year. Related Video: News Source: @FiskerOfficial Design/Style Green Fisker Electric Future Vehicles Sedan Henrik Fisker nanotech fisker inc