The Fisker Ocean -- a Toyota Highlander-sized electric SUV with 350 miles of range and a base price below $40,000 -- debuted in American showrooms with mass-market appeal. The vehicle blended a well-appointed design with promises of cutting-edge tech. But after it sold more than 7,000 units in the U.S., things went awry.
Wracked by faulty technical releases, reported financial mismanagement and delivery issues, Fisker put together bankruptcy plans, which received federal approval in October. For collision shops and customers in need of repairs, wading through parts distribution issues after the bankruptcy has been anything but smooth.
"At present, the car is unable to turn on, doors are locked and are unresponsive to the keyfob," an Ocean driver complained in a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA.) "Since Fisker is bankrupt, there is no way to contact them or any other relevant authorities to fix my car."
In just over a year of sales, Fisker issued six NHTSA recalls, including a stop-sale for a cabin water pump issue a week after declaring bankruptcy.
Hundreds of complaints filed with the NHTSA, combined with insights from a former Fisker employee, Ocean drivers and technicians at Fisker-certified repair shops, reveal a pattern: Fisker’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy has triggered a costly chain reaction across the vehicle repair industry. Some drivers are even facing liability concerns and gaps in their insurance coverage because of the parts prices.
However, interviews with management in the Fisker Owners Association (FOA) and its for-profit Tsunami Automotive parts pipeline show a four-pronged strategy to lessen price shocks across the industry. Executives believe their cost-quelling and parts solutions will go online in four to five months and should ease insurers' worries.
Fisker didn’t immediately respond to Autobody News’ request for comment.
Fisker’s Parts Fallout
Ed Rios, Fisker’s former director of service operations, customer experience and parts operations, has extensive knowledge of Ocean parts. He spearheaded the launch of the collision repair network and the body repair manual. Since the Fisker bankruptcy approval, Rios said, Ocean owners seeking basic parts repairs remain in a “state of limbo.”
For example, windshields are virtually unavailable. According to FOA management and technicians, only 36 windshields were released post-Chapter 11 -- 18 to the public and 18 to American Lease, a Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) company that bought Fisker’s remaining fleet. One collision shop that spoke to Autobody News has three Oceans awaiting window repairs with no replacement timeline.
“There were over 200 windshields requested by customers before we shut down,” Rios said. “We [didn’t] have any. Something as simple as a windshield is really tough to repair.”
Customers turned to eBay after dealer parts ran out, and scarcity drove prices up. Bumpers are listed for up to $2,800, and hoods for $1,800. Autobody News found a damaged hood for $500 plus a $375 delivery fee.
However, Rios said not all parts require full replacement, which could save money for shops and owners.
“The bumpers on this vehicle, the fenders and the rear quarter panels are all made out of plastic,” he said. “If [collision shops] could find a plastic refurbishment company, I would recommend going that route before they look to buy a new one.”
Once the plastic is remolded, ADAS cameras and radars -- mostly mounted on bumpers -- must be recalibrated using Fisker’s proprietary Fisker After Sales Tool (FAST) for diagnostics, which Rios and the FOA say is also in short supply for now.
Clint Bagley, head of marketing and public relations for FOA, told Autobody News a shop remolded a door panel on his Ocean after a small collision in a parking lot.
“They did a beautiful job repairing it,” Bagley said, but without the FAST tool, the shop didn’t know how to recalibrate his car’s ADAS. “For a few months, there was no way for me to get that done.”
A Knowledge Gap
Rios alleged Fisker struggled to disseminate critical vehicle maintenance information to certified parts repairers. In some cases, he claimed the maintenance playbook wasn’t completed before the Chapter 11 filing.
“There are some specifications within the body repair manual,” he said. “However, all the actual instructions on how to properly make certain repairs were not finalized. When we went into Chapter 11, a lot of that information never made it out [to the public.]”
Rios noted that current iterations of the body repair manual don’t include specifications for frame and jig machines.
“The cars weren’t built for service,” a technician at one of the FOA-appointed shops told Autobody News.
A Tsunami Forms
After spending between $70,000 to $80,000 to be early adopters of the Ocean, Fisker owners banded together. Members of the FOA forged Tsunami Automotive, a for-profit company negotiating with suppliers, IP holders and regulators to create a steady pipeline of vehicle parts. According to Sybil Yang, the company’s CEO, many parts will come online in four to five months.
“When Fisker died, things were a mess,” Yang told Autobody News. “Parts were abandoned all over the place.”
Tsunami employs four key strategies to secure parts for Fisker drivers.
First, it salvaged parts from closed Fisker dealerships and U.S. locations. Second, it partners with refurbishing companies to create molds for remanufacturing. Third, it collaborates with original Fisker parts manufacturers, like Magna Steyr and Saint-Gobain. Finally, Tsunami plans to leverage California’s right to repair laws and the NHTSA recall mandates to expand shop access to the FAST tool.
Yang also said the company is in talks with American Lease to build more robust parts supplies. She added the New York-based TLC shreds through bumpers as a yearly consumable.
“They get into a lot of fender benders,” Yang said. “We’ve had discussions with them to start up a supply chain for a lot of different parts.”
Yang predicts the second prong in the strategy will go live in four months. The third prong will bring products to the U.S. in four to five months. For example, Yang located 77 windshields in an insurance warehouse in Europe.
“Until now, we have literally been scrounging for already-made stock,” she said. Despite initial challenges, she’s optimistic about the Magna-manufactured cars, produced by the same company behind the Mercedes-Benz G-Class and Toyota Supra. “When we get over this hump of backlog, there is going to be no work for technicians. Regular stuff doesn’t go wrong mechanically on the car.”
As for the fourth prong, Tsunami believes they should have regulators on their side.
California’s right to repair laws require manufacturers to provide parts, tools and documentation for diagnosing and repairing electronic and appliance products for up to seven years after production. According to Fisker’s website, the company said it would “provide the necessary parts and diagnostic tools at no cost” but added the customer might later be reimbursed for labor costs.
Fisker’s remedy to the water pump recall was to improve the “conformal coating coverage on Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) to cover resistor (R11).” Implementation of the new parts may require the car’s FAST tool.
According to Rios, most Ocean deliveries occurred on the West Coast. Four states -- California, Arizona, Washington and Nevada -- accounted for more than 50% of the Fisker Ocean market share, with California alone representing about 33%.
Rios hopes these customers will continue building supportive networks like the FOA. Otherwise, he recommended filing complaints with the NHTSA, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and loan providers if they encounter more cost-prohibitive parts issues.
Meanwhile, Tsunami and FOA are optimistic their growing pipeline of parts will reinstate insurers' confidence.
“Thankfully, our small but mighty volunteer team is outrageously tenacious and committed,” Bagley told Autobody News. “I've never seen anything like it.”
Ben Shimkus