American EV startup Fisker, which recently launched its first vehicle in Europe, is exploring collaborations with other companies in a bid to rapidly expand its market share, according to Reuters.
Deliveries of Fisker’s first model, the Ocean EV SUV, began two weeks ago on the Old Continent, but the California-based company cut its production guidance for the full year to 32,000-36,000 units, down from an earlier target of 42,400 because of some last-minute snags at Magna’s assembly plant in Austria, where the Ocean is manufactured.
“Buyers aren’t loyal anymore to their traditional brands. That changes everything,” said Henrik Fisker, founder and CEO of Fisker, Inc. “If we collaborate with someone, you can scale quicker … it could be with suppliers, other car companies, tech companies – we are exploring all these avenues,” he added, speaking at the Reuters Automotive Conference in Munich.
Polestar and Smart were also present at the German conference and said that they’re open to new partnerships that can address supply chain and technology challenges, which might hint at a possible collaboration between Fisker and Chinese car group Geely, which owns both Polestar and Smart.
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With this being said, partnerships between rival automakers aren’t something new, and it is more likely that Fisker is seeking partners in the world of suppliers, which can work fast and deliver parts to Magna’s plant in Austria so that the Ocean EV SUV can roll off the production line quicker.
In this regard, Fisker said that the company managed to secure a part of the Ocean’s interior and that its agreement with Magna Steyr allows for the production of up to 120,000 units per year.
The American startup’s CEO also reaffirmed the target to make between 1,400 to 1,700 Ocean SUVs this quarter.
Furthermore, the brand’s next model, the $29,900 Pear electric crossover, will be revealed on August 3 in Los Angeles, Fisker said during the conference.
The smaller EV will be built under contract by Foxconn at the same factory where Lordstown Motors makes the Endurance all-electric pickup and will have 25 percent fewer parts than a comparable car today, the CEO said.
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