Fisker's New Dirt-Cheap Prices Are Borderline Scary, Even If They're the Right Thing to Do

A few interesting things happened across the automotive industry in March. During the early days of the month, the historical location of Texas Motorplex in Ennis, 40 miles south of downtown Dallas, was overrun by eager fans and people's (sometimes flying) machines for the 2024 edition of TX2K. Believe me; it was a festival of quarter-mile dragstrip speed that had everything, from crashes to world records and from 'sleepers' to veritable exotic monsters.

If you want to know more, the good folks over at the ImportRace channel on YouTube have been steadily churning out video features with their coverage of the most important and interesting races. Next up, over in Moab, Utah, the 58th annual Easter Jeep Safari (March 23 - 31) included four new Jeep and JPP by Mopar concepts – and the best of them all wasn't a Wrangler or Gladiator but rather a minty overlanding version of the Jeep Grand Wagoneer called the Vacationeer Concept.

Frankly, I'm not much of an off-road guy anymore because kids tend to make up a big portion of your life when you have them, but this Grand Wagoneer with just two seats would be a great retreat for me and the missus if the middle-age crisis hits me hard and I can't stand the rascals anymore and need a few escapades to some distant, secluded beaches. Anyway, enough with the daydreams – the 2024 New York International Auto Show has signaled a mild resurrection of interest towards classic car events from automakers, and the bundle of reveals was not just interesting but also fairly expansive to cover all tastes.

Last but not least, you would say that Toyota starting the teaser campaign for the all-new sixth generation 2025 4Runner off-road mid-size SUV is the final interesting thing that happened in March 2024. But the truth is that this month was also a cautionary tale about how early adopters shouldn't really trust all these EV startups out there – Tesla succeeded, indeed, but it's hard to believe that anyone can replicate its success so easily. Rivian and Lucid might stand a chance, but not if the EV market slowdown is accentuating. Anyway, the month started with Fisker revealing that it is going downhill – and fast – because it doesn't have enough capital to stay afloat.

This is not the first time a Henrik Fisker endeavor has gone belly-up, as the Danish automotive designer can't seem to marry his styling prowess with entrepreneurial wit. Of course, maybe it's not even his fault because the trends show that the automotive industry is heading towards a bloody battle for survival, and the 'carpocalypse' includes EV startups dying left and right, along with Apple abandoning the EV game while Xiaomi is accelerating plus the possibility that Chinese carmakers will mop the floor with their Western counterparts as the latter battle changing regulations and can't seem to get the crucial software right even if their life depends on it.

The situation with Fisker is so dire that partnership talks with a big automotive company (Nissan) ended abruptly, and share prices fell so hard that the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was prompted to start the delisting procedures – signaling that bankruptcy may be inevitable. Naturally, the company now experiences the equivalent of a bank run as everyone wants to jump ship, and in this context, they performed an extremely bold move – desperately trying to clear up piling inventory, Fisker dropped the Ocean SUV's prices by up to 40%. The cuts are so massive that now a base Ocean Sport costs $24,999 instead of $38,999, which was not all that bad even before the $14k clearance sale. The mid-range Ocean Ultra now comes with a new MSRP of $34,999, $18k below the initial sticker offer of $52,999. Meanwhile, the flagship Ocean Extreme, which has two motors and the Hyper Range battery, good for 360 miles (579 km) of range and a zero to 60 mph sprint time of 3.7 seconds, saw the MSRP barrel down $24k, which is almost like buying an Ocean Sport!

Alas, that doesn't mean we should jump out writing checks for Fisker Oceans – even if lowering the price of these vehicles is the right thing to do. But just as our mother and father taught us that when you see a once-in-a-lifetime deal, you feel you can't refuse, you should wait and see if there's something fishy, this reorganization of prices reeks of the stench of death. Sure, maybe you can find a dealer to buy an Ocean at these new, incredible prices. But after a while, maybe something happens with it – maybe there's a software or hardware problem, or someone hits your precious EV. If Fisker is defunct by then, you're basically stranded with a brick that costs upwards of $25k because no one will bother to honor the warranty, service, or repair that darn thing. My advice? Stay clear of Fisker – at least for a while.