The “Run on Fisker” continues mercilessly. Tens of thousands of people have canceled reservations, thousands of orders, the company owes them hundreds of millions

You can’t survive this in two words. Fisker is almost certainly counting down the last days of its second existence, only 9 months after the start of sales of its first modern production model.

I do not intend to introduce you to the secrets of modern banking in a complicated way, if they are not known to you, but in short we can say that no bank can survive the moment when all clients come to it for their deposits. Banking institutions – completely legally and logically in the system of so-called partial reserves – actually do not have money at their disposal, the balance of which they regularly inform you about. Therefore, if for any reason there is a so-called run on the bank, when savers start withdrawing their money in large numbers, fearing that they will lose it, the institution will be put on hold, even if in fact it had no problems. He simply does not have – and has no reason to have – the liquidity for it.

There are mechanisms in the banking system to prevent something like this, but not in other fields. Even companies operating in other sectors – again easily legally and rationally – do not have the means to meet all their financial obligations at any moment, again they do not have the liquidity to do so. Even a similar rune can bring it to the verge of collapse, even if they have no problems. And if they do have them, it’s usually the last straw.

Fisker found himself in exactly such a situation, as we discussed in detail a few days ago. And the spiral of mounting demands continues, as reported by Business Insider. He got access to internal data showing that Fisker customers have recently been canceling their earlier Ocean model reservations at a rapid pace, of which the company should have collected around 70,000. However, since June last year, it sold only about 6,000 cars, and the number of canceled reservations has now exceeded 40,000.

It would be unpleasant under any circumstances, such potential buyers will hardly return, but in the current situation it means an additional burden on the injured cash-flow. Each reservation is associated with a $250 fee, which is 90 percent ($225) refundable, so 40,000 canceled reservations mean a financial claim of $9 million, more than 210 million crowns. In addition, “thousands of people” should have completely canceled their binding Ocean orders, which are associated with a 5,000 USD (117,000 CZK) deposit. The car company doesn’t have to return them, but it loses thousands of sales, which it needs above all.

It is indeed highly likely that Fisker is on the verge of a total collapse that only a miracle can prevent. And we feel that the car company has already crossed the imaginary Rubicon too far for there to be a way back. The next days will show more.

Fisker has not offered anything in the form of the Ocean that should justify its continued existence. Now he has a ready run and we are convinced that he will succumb to it within a few days and the company will declare bankruptcy. Photo: Fisker

Sources: Business Insider, Fisker

Peter Miller

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