There has been much speculation about how Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter will impact the EV company. Are the top executives ready to be more involved? What will happen to the share price? Is the proposed split still a go?
Well, the impact is already being seen on one front as one competitor deleted his Twitter account: Henrik Fisker.
Now helming his second vehicle company, Fisker and Musk have a history together — most of it unpleasant. For that reason, Fisker seemingly decided to get out (of Twitter) when the gettin’ was good.
“Please follow me on IG from now on if you want updates. Thanks.” Fisker had about 86,000 followers at the time he cut his account. In contrast, Musk has more than 84 million. If you search for Henrik Fisker on Twitter now, you’ll just get an error message.
However, it appears to be clearly a personal issue, which may not be much of a surprise given the two are definitely not friends, as the Fisker Inc. Twitter account is alive and well.
We ain’t friends
The two haven’t been kind to one another throughout the years. Fisker worked for Musk at Tesla in the early days, playing a role in the design of the Model S in 2007 before he departed to start his own eponymous company that made hybrids with an eye toward going all electric.
The first vehicle was the Fisker Karma, a hybrid sports car, which received a warm reception for its looks, despite its lofty price take of more than $100k. However, Musk was less than kind in his assessment of the vehicle — and the designer — at the time.
“The fundamental problem with Henrik Fisker — he is a designer or stylist … he thinks the reason we don’t have electric cars is for lack of styling,” Musk said at the time. “This is not the reason. It’s fundamentally a technology problem.
“At the same time, you need to make it look good and feel good, because otherwise you’re going to have an impaired product. But just making something look like an electric car does not make it an electric car.”
As for the car itself, he told Automobile Magazine back then, “It’s a mediocre product at a high price. The car looks very big, and yet it has no trunk space and is very cramped inside, particularly in the rear seats.”
Competing again
Henrik Fisker’s first attempt to build a better EV failed, went bankrupt, and was eventually bought out of bankruptcy by a Chinese company. It has finally returned, the company now named Karma with its first product dubbed Revero.
However, the man is also back with Fisker Inc., which is in the process of getting its first product, the Ocean EV, ready for production. Fisker and Magna, one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, also confirmed production of the all-electric Fisker Ocean SUV is slated to begin Nov. 17, 2022, keeping it on the original timeline for deliveries in late 2022. Production is expected to jump to 50,000 units in 2023.
The new vehicle will be built at Magna’s facility in Graz, Austria.
The new vehicle is expected to reach the market in November 2022, with a starting price of $37,499, or less than $30,000 after a $7,500 federal tax credit; making it one of the most affordable EVs on the market.
For that, consumers will get the entry-level Sport model, a single motor front-wheel drive crossover with a 250-mile range and 275 horsepower that will run 0-60 mpg in 6.9 seconds. From there, buyers can step up to that $49,999 Ultra, with dual electric motors, all-wheel drive with a rear axle disconnect, torque vectoring, and a 340-mile range.
Its 540 horsepower driveline makes it a significantly brisker Fisker: 60 mph comes up in just 3.9 second. Topping the range is the $68,999 Extreme, which boasts the same powertrain dialed up to deliver a 350-plus mile range, 550 horsepower and a 3.6-second 0-60 mph run.
