As of: March 28, 2024, 8:57 p.m
By: Josef Ametsbichler
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A car dealership is on a roller coaster: the VW Hartmann location in Grafing, which has just been reopened by the electric car company Fisker, is threatened with closure again. A company-wide financing disaster is to blame.
Grafing
– The beefy electric SUVs from the US brand Fisker with license plates from all over Munich are parked in the depot of the former Hartmann car dealership; there is even a Berliner there. An employee at the service and repair location, who is actually not allowed to say anything, says: “We are working.” However, whether he and his colleagues will still be paid their salaries next month currently seems extremely questionable. The Californian company with its European headquarters in Munich is facing bankruptcy: there is a threat of a Fisker fiasco.
A Fisker Ocean in the parking lot of the workshop in Grafing. What will happen next for the location is unclear. © Stefan Roßmann
Workshop in Grafing is still working, but: debacle on the stock market, Fisker production comes to a standstill
A bond deal worth up to $150 million that was intended as a rescue failed, and so far no car company has been found that wanted to support Danish billionaire Henrik Fisker's stumbling electric car startup. The company has now made good its warning to shareholders that its operational business is at acute risk: production in Graz, Austria, is at a standstill and the share price plummeted into the single-digit cent range before it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday how junk goods were taken out of the market.
Clouds hang heavy over the former Hartmann car dealership in Grafing. The new tenant, the electric car company Fisker, is apparently facing bankruptcy. © Stefan Roßmann
Two more locations in Munich: The employees don't know what's coming either
The employees in Grafing can't say what will happen next, even if they were allowed to talk, says one. The electric car brand only opened its “Fisker Center +” in the Bärenstadt at the turn of the year (we reported). The group also operates two consulting locations in Munich, including a prominent location opposite the Galeria department store on Kaufingerstrasse. Their future is also shaky.
Insecurity is accompanied by closedness. The Fisker press office narrowly refers to official announcements that are weeks old and long since outdated. Upon request from the editorial team, there is no information about the locations in and around Munich. You follow the news and you don't know anything more, says the employee on site.
The signs were still pointing to growth last year. The Grafing location was supposed to start with five employees. “In the long term, the team will be expanded significantly,” said Fisker Europe spokeswoman Franziska Queling to the Ebersberger Zeitung in August 2023. In Grafing you can see the spatial scope to offer not only purchasing advice but also – partly mobile – service and workshop services. With customers from Bavaria and beyond as a target group: The nearest workshop locations are in Frankfurt and Vienna.
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Car dealership location in a rollercoaster of emotions
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.)
The optimism of a young company in the growth sector of e-mobility seemed to be a promise for the future for the location of the former Grafinger Hartmann car dealership. Its owner of the same name initially wanted to introduce the four-day week and then unexpectedly closed it at the end of 2022 due to a lack of staff and health reasons. It is now becoming clear that the emotional roller coaster ride for the traditional Bear City store does not end with the takeover by Fisker.
Fisker has recently been criticized for slow production, which remained well below the announced figures, and the strategic decision to only sell the cars via online ordering. This direct sales with a few showrooms called “lounges” apparently did not meet the tastes of customers, in an already uncertain and competitive e-car market. Job advertisements for the Munich area can no longer be found on Fisker's own career platform.
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