Financial News
The Fisker Ocean Aims to Make a Splash in the EV Industry
As the electric vehicle manufacturer plans to begin manufacturing in November, the Fisker Ocean makes a debut in Brooklyn.
On a Sunday morning, Brooklyn saw a line-up, but it wasn’t for bagels. The Fisker (FSR) Ocean, an electric SUV manufactured by the Manhattan Beach, California, firm, was the subject of the line that formed on River Street in the Williamsburg neighborhood of New York City.
People lined up to get a seat inside and take pictures with the Big Sur blue car.
We appreciate you, #fiskerfam.
The business tweeted, “Thank you #fiskerfam.” “We’re coming back. What comes next?”
The Fisker Ocean One sold out in 30 days last month, each backed by a $5,000 deposit, according to the business, representing a $350 million potential profit once all the vehicles are delivered. On Nov. 15, production is expected to begin, and deliveries will follow soon after.
The Sport will cost $37,499 before incentives, the Ultra is priced at roughly $50,000, and the Extreme variant will go for over $69,000.
As it joins electric vehicle kingpin Tesla (TSLA) and the established automakers who want to abandon the internal combustion engine, The Ocean will be sailing through some rough waters.
According to Matthew DeBord, senior communications director at Fisker, “this automobile was developed two years ago and is coming into production in November, so that’s extremely rapid.” “That is twice as quickly as the next person. Tesla didn’t achieve anything that quickly, in my opinion.”
The Ocean will make use of recycled materials including rubber, discarded t-shirts, and fishing nets.
DeBord stated, “We want to have the most environmentally friendly vehicle on the road.
In light of this, DeBord claimed that the Ocean’s solar roof “puts 2,000 kilometers in the car over the course of a year just sitting in the sunshine.”
Magna will manufacture the Ocean at a facility in Austria under a long-term production arrangement that Fisker and Magna International (MGA) negotiated last year.
“What we get in exchange is guaranteed quality, “Added DeBord. “Magna is skilled at auto construction. They’ve produced excellent automobiles in the past.” According to the corporate website, Magna, Aurora, Ontario, has created more than 40 entire automobiles and variants and produced roughly 3.7 million vehicles.
DeBord added that with some of these startups, “you’re not really sure what you’re getting because they’ve just established a factory, they’ve just begun making a vehicle automobile, they’ve never done it before.”
Henrik Fisker, the company’s founder and chairman, is an auto entrepreneur who created such opulent cars as the BMW Z8, (BAMXF), the Aston Martin DB9, and the Ocean.
He helped co-found Fisker Automotive in 2007, but the company encountered problems and had to have its batteries recalled. In 2013 Fisker left the business due to “disagreements with management.”
Fisker reported a second-quarter net loss of $106 million, or 36 cents per share, earlier this month as opposed to the consensus analyst forecast of a loss of 41 cents per share given by FactSet.
According to a transcript of the conversation, Fisker stated during a conference call with analysts that the balance sheet “remains healthy at over $850 million in cash, and our business continues to scale.”
The number of employees on the Fisker teams has risen to 550, which represents an increase of more than 60% year-to-date. This number includes the new [senior vice president] of global manufacturing, who will concentrate on lean production and creative approaches, Fisker stated.
Adam Jonas, a Morgan Stanley analyst, downgraded the firm from overweight to equal weight and lowered his price target from $15 to $10.
The near-term execution risk for Fisker is increased, according to Jonas, by ongoing macro and geopolitical risk as well as the danger of a European gas shortage because all of the company’s production is located in Austria.
Itay Michaeli, a Citi analyst, increased his price objective for the shares from $27 to $28, maintaining a Buy rating.
Fisker stock was last seen trading for about $9. Midway through November, the $23.75 52-week high was reached.
No significant shocks, according to Michaeli, were contained in the company’s “pretty optimistic” second-quarter update. According to him, the situation is good for Fisker’s stock at current prices “significant achievements.
The chief financial officer and Fisker’s wife, Geeta Gupta-Fisker, stated on the call that “our innovative methodology eliminates the significant operating leverage inherent in this business and dramatically shortens the development time frame.”
“It is absolutely crucial that I underline our asset-light strategy, which we started with more than two years ago, in this current challenging situation,” she said.
She further stated that commodities price “had stopped bubbling since our last conversation. Steel, for instance, which is more significant to Ocean than aluminum, is down 40% since early May and 55% over the past 12 months. Important battery parts have also slightly mellowed.”
According to Gupta-Fisker, “we are extremely optimistic that we have adequate headroom to absorb that if there is higher movement and commodity pricing.”
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