When Henrik Fisker went back to making cars in 2023, he used direct sales, just like a number of his fellow electric vehicle producers. What Fisker wanted to do was the same thing that Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid had done with their own named EV companies: sell cars directly to buyers instead of going through dealerships. He has, however, chosen to go back to the old-fashioned way of running a dealership after having problems with the new way of doing things. From what the Wall Street Journal says, Fisker plans to open 50 shops in the US this year. With 50 shops, the brand-new, never-before-seen business will find it easier to get customers and get them to buy cars. Not even half of the 10,142 Fisker Ocean electric SUVs that were made in 2018, the first year the type was available, were bought. A big part of the problem is that buyers can’t see the car in person because Fisker only has showrooms in Los Angeles and New York. He also says, “Some people don’t want to fly to a different state or drive three hours to see a car.” It’s shocking. There is also the matter of stock. Fisker only has two shops, and more than half of its cars still need to be sold. The company is in charge of keeping and managing the cars. Fisker could be doing better with direct sales as Tesla, Rivian, and Lucid. Why is that? This might depend on where the factories for each brand of cars are located. The other three electric car companies make their cars in the US, but Fisker hires Magna Steyr in Austria to make the Ocean. Because of this, it might be easier for businesses in the US to keep their stock. Fisker found out that the business has to spend a lot of money on storing and other costs for each car. “After seeing that figure, I thought, wow, we can really afford to give someone else a margin and take care of everything,” he stated. It’s interesting to see Fisker change its mind. At first, it made sense for Fisker to follow the lead of most new EV companies, which avoid dealers in favor of a more direct, modern method. Especially since traditional automakers have said, they would like to do the same thing. They tried it out during the spread when most people were at home. On the other hand, legacy automakers are big enough and have enough money to handle unsold inventory and keep it on file. The standard dealership model may work best for a small, global company like Fisker in the United States.
