A woman who snapped up a sleek £42,000 Fisker electric SUV has been left with a 2.5 tonne ‘garden ornament’ that can’t move after its software packed in and the firm went bust.
Karin Simonsen, a marketing manager from Southampton, made the leap to battery-powered motoring with a Fisker Ocean Sport in December 2023 – setting aside concerns that businessman Henrik Fisker’s last car company had gone bust.
But the 52-year-old’s electric dream became a nightmare as she suffered repeated issues with its software. Fed up, she decided to send it back to Fisker under the terms of the warranty.
But when someone came to collect it, it would not start. Days later, Fisker Inc. filed for insolvency – meaning she had nobody to return the car to.
Technicians had disabled the 12 volt battery after the alarm kept going off – but this has left it an inert brick that can’t be moved or even opened.
Far from having her dream motor, Ms Simonsen has been left with a car-shaped paperweight in her driveway for the last 10 months, with no end to the saga in sight.
‘It has just been, from day one, a catalogue of catastrophes,’ she told MailOnline. The experience of an all-software car has put her off ever buying an electric motor again.
Ms Simonsen decided to make the leap to electric at the end of 2023 after test-driving a Fisker Ocean and falling in love with the car’s cool eco-credentials, including its use of recycled materials and zero carbon emissions.
Do YOU own a Fisker Ocean? Email: jon.brady@mailonline.co.uk
Marketing director Karin Simonsen has been left with a £42,000 paperweight in her drive after her Fisker Ocean packed in
She bought the electric car in December 2023 as she prepared to switch to electric – but the car was beset with issues from the moment she picked it up
She has been unable to move the car since last June after technicians disabled the 12V battery to stop the alarm going off
Despite the fact that the company’s founder, Henrik Fisker, had failed once before – his first firm, Fisker Automotive, filing for bankruptcy in 2013 – she was confident that his new venture would have more success.
She took out a bank loan and picked up the car from the glossy Fisker Lounge shop at London’s Westfield shopping centre.
Like rival firm Tesla, Fisker eschewed contracting sales out to dealerships in favour of selling directly to customers via its own shops at the Westfield and in Milton Keynes.
Even then, there was a cruel omen that she admits she should have heeded: the car failed to recognise the key fob and wouldn’t start.
‘Something in me said, “Don’t do it, Karin” – but I overrode that in the excitement of my new car and took it home,’ she said.
‘Ever since that day I’ve had issues with the vehicle, loads of them. Lots of things didn’t work on it, and they would always say, “it’ll be a software update, that’ll fix it”.’
Common issues with the Fisker Ocean software saw many of its basic features hampered – from the key fob issue Ms Simonsen experienced on day one to issues with its air conditioning.
But there were also far more serious issues, including errors with sensors and safety systems and even sudden losses of braking power.
After experiencing a raft of problems with the car – which repeated visits by Fisker technicians failed to fix – Ms Simonsen decided she had had enough.
She contacted Fisker in June to send it back under the terms of its warranty, and the firm sent out a trailer to pick it up – only to find that they could not start the car.
An issue with the 12 volt battery meant the alarm was constantly going off – so technicians ultimately disabled it – having to remove part of the front of the car just to access the bonnet – and ended up immobilising the vehicle altogether.
‘The day they came to take it away it wouldn’t go into drive so they couldn’t get it onto the car trailer,’ she said.
It would be the last time she would see them – days later, Fisker filed for Chapter 11 insolvency in the US, taking its UK operations with it.
Ms Simonsen’s Fisker Ocean – seen here with part of the front removed in order to open the bonnet – is now an inert reminder of £42,000 she may not get back
Around 400 Fisker Oceans were delivered to the UK – but unsold ones have began appearing across the country after being abandoned by dealerships who can’t sell them (such as these ones in Nottingham)
Ms Simonsen says the experience of cars packed with omnipresent software has put her off of electric motoring for life
The British subsidiary, Fisker (GB) Ltd – owned wholly by the US parent – then filed a petition to be wound up on July 23.
Its director Dr Geeta Gupta-Fisker – Henrik Fisker’s wife, and the company’s chief operating and chief financial officer – did not appoint an administrator.
The Insolvency Service has appointed the official receiver of London to handle Fisker’s liquidation, leaving it with the unenviable task of helping people like Ms Simonsen get her money back.
She has been left in limbo because Fisker authorised the return of the car, for which she was set to receive a refund – but she is now unsure when, or even if, she will see any of her cash again.
There is no sales support; no technicians; no Fisker left to contact – and a big 2.5tonne reminder that she is £42,000 out of pocket visible from her front window.
She added: ‘It’s a nightmare. Now my car is actually just bricked. It’s a garden ornament because it won’t go into drive. It’s sat there since June.
‘I’ve been back and forth with the Insolvency Service but I have no idea about anything. I’m literally at my wit’s end. I’ve got a car I can’t move.’
Sources with knowledge of the Fisker liquidation said the process was likely to last several more months owing to the ‘complicated’ nature of the process.
And while Ms Simonsen says she has been speaking to members of the Fisker Owners Association – a club set up by those determined to keep their Oceans on the road – she is worried that trying to get the car going again might affect her return.
She tried to file a claim as a creditor in Fisker’s US insolvency case too – but received a letter informing her that her claim would not be taken forward.
‘I’ve got a beautiful vehicle – if it was working it would be absolutely fine. And I see all these wonderful people having a great time in theirs, but I’m not,’ she said.
In a stroke of luck she credits to gut instinct, Ms Simonsen still has a car to keep her on the road.
The Fisker owning experience had been a ‘catalogue of catastrophes’, Ms Simonsen told MailOnline
A set of unsold Fisker Oceans in a car park. An auction company has rounded up just under 50 Fisker Oceans and is selling them at a heavy discount, as little as £10,000
Some of the Fiskers dumped by the roadside still had their factory seat coverings in place
Henrik Fisker (pictured with an Ocean) founded Fisker Inc in 2016 after his first self-titled automotive failure went bust
She kept her old diesel motor when she got her Fisker after the EV was delivered months ahead of schedule.
Unlike her snazzy EV, it actually works – and she says she is unlikely to go electric in the near future while cars like the Ocean continue to exhibit problems.
‘I shall be sticking to a fossil fuel vehicle – it has put me off supporting the environment because this is what happens. Electric car ownership is not what it is cracked up to be,’ she said.
A spokesperson for the Insolvency Service said: ‘We are unable to comment on ongoing liquidation proceedings.
‘Customers who are owed money by a company in liquidation can find out more information on GOV.UK – including how to register a claim as a creditor if money is outstanding.’
Fisker is facing a number of lawsuits in the US after appearing to over-promise with its flashy electric cars – and it’s not the first time one of Henrik Fisker’s enterprises has gone under.
The car designer, who led design on the BMW Z8 sports car, founded his first self-titled firm Fisker Automotive in 2007, producing the Karma range-extended EV.
The Karma achieved great public attention for being ahead of its time, appearing on Top Gear. The firm even courted Leonardo DiCaprio as an investor.
But production deadlines were missed and the cars were subject to numerous recalls; the firm then lost more than 300 cars to floodwaters wrought by Hurricane Sandy.
The firm was liquidated in 2013, with Fisker retaining the trademarks and the remaining assets, including the Karma’s design, sold to China’s Wanxiang Group.
Undeterred, Henrik Fisker courted new investors and founded Fisker Inc in 2016, while the UK firm followed two years later.
He had huge ambitions for the firm, with plans for an ‘urban’ electric vehicle, a sports car and a pick-up truck that ultimately failed to materialise.
There was even a plan to give a Fisker to the late Pope Francis, converted into a Popemobile with a glass box from which the pontiff could wave at the faithful.
His first venture, Fisker Automotive, courted investors like Leonardo DiCaprio as it developed the Fisker Karma sports saloon (pictured)
Mr Fisker had promised to deliver a new electric Popemobile for the late Pope Francis – but this failed to materialise
Cars like the Fisker Force E (pictured alongside Mr Fisker) will never materialise after the firm went under
Mr Fisker, who described himself online as a ‘risk taking, innovation loving, protocol challenging automotive designer’ now lists himself as Fisker’s former chairman and CEO on LinkedIn
But reports suggested Fisker was spending more on developing and building cars than it was making back through sales.
Plagued by issues with the 10,000 Ocean cars that made it into production, it ultimately threw in the towel last summer.
A number of unsold Fisker Oceans have since cropped up in the UK, with a convoy of them dumped in Nottingham seven months ago by a dealership after the company went bust.
John Pye Auctions has since collected them on instruction from Fisker liquidators and will sell them, along with almost 50 others, at auction in the coming months.
Some of them have already gone under the hammer for as little as £15,000, far below their recommended retail price of up to £57,900.
But future Fisker owners – even those determined to keep their cars going – will likely struggle in future as part supplies run dry.
A deal to transfer Fisker Ocean owners to a new service in a bid to keep updates going ran aground after the firm admitted it could not move them.
As for Mr Fisker himself, the Dane has effectively gone to ground since the company filed for bankruptcy.
His LinkedIn online CV describes him as a ‘risk taking, innovation loving, protocol challenging automotive designer and entrepreneur that’s (sic) turns dreams into reality and never gives up’.
His last post on the social network, in December 2023, was a boldly worded rebuttal to reports that the company was in trouble as its share price plummeted 75 per cent in two months.
‘I believe the negative reports about the company have been overblown,’ he said.
His CV now describes him as ‘chairman and CEO at Fisker Inc until October 2024’.
MailOnline approached Mr Fisker for comment.
