Money tap turned off

Fisker stops production at Magna in Graz

The US electric car start-up Fisker, which is suffering from a lack of funds, is stopping production of its Ocean model. Production at the contract manufacturer Magna in Graz will be interrupted for six weeks, the company announced on Monday.

Previously, Fisker had owed 8.4 million dollars in interest on convertible bonds. The company explained that it had deliberately decided to default in order to gain time for negotiations with investors.

Enough money for the interest would actually have been available. However, the company's cash had shrunk to 120.9 million dollars by Friday - less than a third of what was available at the end of last year.

New convertible bonds with a volume of up to 150 million dollars, which Fisker has sold at a discount to the Polish investment fund CVI Investment, are now expected to bring fresh money into the company's coffers, according to mandatory filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Fisker has been in financial difficulties for some time and, according to a report, is preparing for possible insolvency. Negotiations are currently being held with a car manufacturer about a collaboration, according to the report. According to insiders, this is Nissan from Japan. It was recently reported that an agreement could be signed in the course of the month.

Only a quarter of planned production
The company, which was founded by Danish car designer Henrik Fisker, has been experiencing for some time now that sales of the vehicles are proving more difficult than originally planned. Added to this is the cooling demand for electric cars overall. The original plan was to produce 40,000 vehicles a year in Graz, but last year only 10,000 were produced.