What Fisker’s Deal To Build Electric Cars With Foxconn Means

Electric carmaker Fisker (FSR) announced that it was entering into a deal with Foxconn to jointly develop and manufacture an electric vehicle under Project PEAR.

Project PEAR (Personal Electric Automotive Revolution) will give way to a “new segment vehicle” that Foxconn is projected to produce in volumes of more than 250,000 units a year. The EV will be marketed in North America, Europe, China, and India.

Production of the electric vehicle is slated for Q4 2023, Fisker said.

“We created our company to disrupt every convention in the auto industry,” Fisker Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Henrik Fisker, said in a statement. “The creation of Project PEAR with Foxconn brings together two like-minded and complementary companies, each focused on creating new value in a traditional industry.

“We will create a vehicle that crosses social borders, while offering a combination of advanced technology, desirable design, innovation and value for money, whilst delivering on our commitment to create the world’s most sustainable vehicles.”

Foxconn is the Chinese manufacturer of Apple’s iPhone and is considered the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, Business Insider reported.

“The collaboration between our firms means that it will only take 24 months to produce the next Fisker vehicle – from research and development to production, reducing half of the traditional time required to bring a new vehicle to market,” Foxconn Technology Group Chairman, Young-way Liu, said.

This will be the second electrified vehicle introduced under the Fisker nameplate and follow the launch of the Ocean SUV, which was announced in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Electric automaker is expected to begin production of the Ocean SUV in Q4 2022 and said it has more than 12,000 global paid reservations for the vehicle to date. A prototype of the EV will be unveiled later this year, the company said.

Fisker is manufacturing the Ocean SUV in a partnership with Magna in Europe, where it will use a modified version of the company’s EV platform.

Upon news of the deal between the two companies, Fiskers shares surged more than 25% as of mid-day Wednesday. Fisker went public last year in a reverse merger in 2020. The company has a market cap of $5.26 billion, CNBC reported.

The companies expect to make the deal final in the second quarter of this year.

Shares of Fisker were trading at $20.42 as of 11:57 a.m. EST, up $4.13 or 25.35%.