Not too long after Fisker began selling its Ocean SUV in the United States, it all came crashing down. The EV startup filed for bankruptcy protection in June, just days after issuing a recall for the Ocean over concerns that it could lose drive power. Now, the U.S. Department of Justice has declared, in a court filing issued on Monday, that Fisker’s plan to offload the costs of vehicle recalls onto customers is illegal, as reported by Reuters.
The recall for the faulty Motor Control Unit (MCU) for 2023 model year Oceans wasn’t the only recall issued for the electric SUV. Other problems include warning lights that wouldn’t display correctly, door handles that can get stuck and fail to open, a water pump failure that could also result in a loss of drive power, and an unexpected loss of regenerative braking power. The latter three issues also apply to 2024 Oceans.
The court filing from the U.S. Department of Justice stated that Fisker is required to fix the issues “without charge” and also stated that Fisker’s plan to reimburse owners later if they paid for the repairs out of pocket was in violation of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
This ruling is just one obstacle in a whole line of speed bumps for the failing company. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has opened its own investigation into Fisker over the company’s liquidation plan and whether it plans to preserve its corporate records, Reuters reported. Meanwhile, the landlord of Fisker’s former headquarters in La Palma, California, has submitted a filing to Fisker’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy docket, alleging that the company left the space in a state of “complete disarray,” as reported by TechCrunch.
Photos provided in the filing show trash strewn about the space, full-size clay models of the planned Alaska truck and Rōnin sports car, and drums that allegedly contain hazardous waste. The landlord says Fisker claimed that the Heritage Global Partners, an auction house to which Fisker had sold many of the on-site assets, would remove everything by September 27, but instead says that people—it’s unclear if they worked for Fisker or the auction house—removed items in a frenzy without any clear logging system.
Heritage Global Partners says it was not responsible for the drums or the batteries that were left behind, and that it was unable to access the facility to remove the office equipment and furniture it had purchased when Fisker had said it would on September 30. While Fisker will almost certainly not produce any more Ocean SUVs, the story of this failed startup appears far from over.
Caleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan.
