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Wanxiang increases Fisker bid by $10m, hints at Delaware production

Just before a judicial hearing tomorrow on the fate of bankrupt Fisker Automotive, one of the two companies fighting over the company's remains, Wanxiang America Corp., said it is willing to increase its submitted bit by a cool $10 million in cash. Wanxiang is ready to bring its total starting bid to $35.7 million and said it is willing to pay 'considerably' more if US bankruptcy judge Kevin Gross approves the sale. Wanxiang says it would pay Fisker's unsecured creditors 50 cents (or more) on each dollar they are owed, while a competing bid from Hybrid Technology LLC would net them less than a penny per dollar. Wanxiang has also said that if it gains control of Fisker, it could restart Karma production in Finland and then wants to build a next-gen model (a hatchback Atlantic, which you can see here) in Michigan alongside the gas-powered version of the Karma, the Destino. Wanxiang is also hinting that it could build future models in Delaware, "if there's enough consumer demand." Remember, attorneys for Fisker wanted the judge to deny Wanxiang's initial bid altogether and want the plug-in vehicle company to be sold to Hybrid Tech. Last year, Hybrid Tech bought the Department of Energy's failed loan to Fisker for $25 million. The loan was originally valued at $529 million, but Fisker only ever accessed $192 million of that before the DOE got suspicious and stopped funding. Featured Gallery Fisker Karma by GS Automotive Art News Source: ABC News, Washington PostImage Credit: Gijs Spierings Green Fisker Electric Hybrid PHEV wanxiang destino

Fisker looking to hire 37 at career fair this week

Fisker Automotive appears to be kicking off its first round of hiring in Southern California since the high-end extended-range plug-in vehicle company went belly-up two years ago. The company, which is based in Costa Mesa, CA, says it wants to hire about three-dozen people at a job fair in California's Riverside County this week, according to local paper the Press-Enterprise. Fisker is building a 556,000-square-foot plant in the city of Moreno Valley, which is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. The hirings are part of a job fair that is being put on by the Moreno Valley Employment Resource Center. Fisker will pay as much as $26 an hour for positions in the factory's body shop as well as some mechanical and quality-assurance positions. Fisker is looking to eventually bring in 150 full-time workers as early as next year. The company is said to already employ about 200 people at its home offices. Those interested in the factory positions can find job descriptions at rivcoworkforce.com. Reports about the new Fisker factory started surfacing in June. The company, which is now owned by China-based Wanxiang, is believed to be working on a revised Karma model called the Elux. Fisker built about 2,600 of its Karma plug-in vehicles before halting production in 2012 and going bankrupt a year later. Wanxiang acquired Fisker out of bankruptcy in early 2014 for $149.2 million. Since then, the company has launched a site called thenewfisker.com. The site is designed to offer parts and service of the Karma vehicles. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2012 Fisker Karma: First Drive View 23 Photos News Source: Press-Enterprise Green Plants/Manufacturing Fisker Hybrid California wanxiang karma employment job

Henrik Fisker: No 'final conclusion' yet in Foxconn deal

Two years ago, EV startup Fisker seemed to have hooked a giant when it announced a deal with Taiwanese iPhone maker Foxconn to build a sub-$30,000 crossover in the United States. It turns out that deal hasn't been finalized, according to comments Fisker founder and CEO Henrik Fisker made during an interview with TechCrunch. "In the Foxconn deal specifically, we don't yet have a final conclusion to this deal," Fisker told TechCrunch on the sidelines of an event in Huntington Beach, California, to showcase its future EV portfolio. While Henrik Fisker is still confident it will come together, his comments show just how precarious and complex automotive manufacturing deals can be. And considering Foxconn's history of backing out of other factory agreements, there's reason for some caution. The Foxconn-Fisker deal Foxconn and Fisker signed in February 2021 a memorandum of understanding agreement, with the goal of producing 250,000 vehicles annually. While it wasn't clear which vehicle Fisker might build with Foxconn, the automaker had said that it was working on the Personal Automotive Electric Revolution (PEAR) — an EV built for cities and urban environments that would cost less than $30,000. The Fisker-Foxconn deal came together relatively quickly following the announcement of the memorandum, and by May 2021, Foxconn and Fisker had a signed agreement, setting those expectations in writing. A few months later, Foxconn made a separate deal with EV maker Lordstown Motors that included buying its factory in Ohio and helping the struggling company manufacture its Endurance electric pickup truck. Fisker became a beneficiary of the deal when, in May 2022, the company announced it reached an agreement with Foxconn to build its PEAR EV at the Lordstown factory. But cracks soon formed in Foxconn's agreement with Lordstown Motors. Lordstown Motors filed for bankruptcy and has sued Foxconn for "fraudulent conduct," stating that the Taiwanese company had made a litany of "broken promises." Foxconn currently still owns the manufacturing plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and Fisker says that plans to build the PEAR in the Lordstown plant are still on track. Foxconn is no stranger to scuttling done deals. The company withdrew from a $19.5 billion agreement with Indian company Vedanta last month. It also famously received a $3 billion incentives package to build a factory in Wisconsin that was supposed to create 13,000 jobs.