Fisker leans on dealerships to boost EV sales

(Reuters) -Electric vehicle company Fisker (NYSE:) said on Thursday that it would add dealerships alongside its direct-to-customer distribution model to expand its sales and delivery network.

The California-based company, which sells its vehicles across the United States and Canada apart from other markets in Europe, has only two showrooms or Fisker Lounges in North America – one in Los Angeles and the other in New York. In other locations, it has retail stores called Fisker Center+.

Fisker said, in Europe, it will continue to offer direct sales but will bring onboard partners for sales and distribution.

While the EV startup made more than 10,000 vehicles in 2023, it delivered only about 4,700 units of the Ocean sport utility vehicles due to distribution constraints.

“We are evolving our business model and intend to add as many as 50 dealer partners in the US and Canada and a similar number of dealer locations in Europe this year,” CEO Henrik Fisker said.

The company expects to send its first Ocean vehicles to new dealers by the end of the first quarter, Fisker said, adding that it has been in talks with dealer partners since November 2023.

Lucid (NASDAQ:), Rivian (NASDAQ:) and Fisker have followed an online and direct-to-consumer model that was started by Elon Musk-led Tesla (NASDAQ:), in their efforts to cut out middlemen that dealership models have.

Earlier this week, Vietnamese electric car maker VinFast Auto (NASDAQ:) said that it had signed its first five dealerships in Texas, New York, Kansas and North Carolina. Swedish EV maker Polestar (NASDAQ:) also uses a dealership model.