More than 40K Fisker customers have canceled orders of their Oceans
Another major blow to California-based startup Fisker, as tens of thousands of customers reportedly have canceled their EV reservations to date – which is some serious bad buzz amid a tumultuous time as the company scrambles for funding to stay alive.
Leaked data obtained by Business Insider states that to date Fisker customers have canceled orders by the tens of thousands – not that it’s terribly surprising given the dire news coming out of the company of late.
“More than 40,000 out of well over 70,000 reservations for the Fisker Ocean have been canceled to date,” the report said. The “to date” part means presumably this has been happening for a while, since according to the internal metrics procured, Fisker has averaged around 70 to 80 cancellations per day in a recent week-long average.
Still, a tough break for a company that desperately needs to generate more revenue, and Fisker has to give back a portion of the fee customers spent on reserving a vehicle, which costs $250 to reserve. Fisker’s website says that the amount is refundable, with the exception of a $25 processing fee.
The total amount of 40,000 reservation reimbursements adds up is an eye-watering $9 million, not that that is the exact figure. Fisker has so far declined to comment on the data leak or cancelations.
In total, Fisker has delivered more than 6,000 EVs to date since releasing its Ocean SUV in June last year, according to the metrics seen by Business Insider.
Last week, Fisker dropped prices on the Ocean by nearly 40% to boost sales, with the lowest-priced option, the Ocean Sport, available for $24,999 – a nearly $14,000 price difference from its regular retail price of $38,999. The Ocean Extreme shaved off $24,000 from its regular price $61,499 to $37,499.
Of course, if you need servicing or new parts in the future, we’re not sure anyone will be available to take your call.
In February, Fisker said in its earnings call that it might not be able to make it through the year. In a regulatory filing earlier last month, Fisker said it has paused production for six weeks and stated that it had $121 million in the bank. March 18, the company then announced a fresh commitment of $150 million in additional funding, but then said a few days later that the deal fell through.
Fisker made more than 10,000 EVs last year, well below the 42,400 originally promised, but it delivered only about 4,700. Still, its stock price soared at the end of last year as a result – which gave the company a boost it badly needed.
Of course, Fisker has been playing on the edge for months now, after slashing its production guidance last year as it struggled to ramp up deliveries and dealing with noncompliance notices from Nasdaq this year. The company has faced a long line of issues and delays too in getting its EVs to customers who had paid for them.
Now, Fisker probably needs nothing short of a miracle, but we’ll stayed tuned.
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Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib has long been considered one of the shining success stories of urban micromobility. With a massive fleet of over 20,000 pedal and electric-assist bicycles around Paris, the service has helped millions of residents and tourists get around the City of Light without needing a car or scooter. But lately, a growing problem is threatening to knock the wheels off this urban mobility marvel: theft and joyriding.
According to city officials and the service operator, more than 600 Vélib bikes are now going missing every single week. That’s over 30 bikes a day simply vanishing from the system – some stolen outright, others taken on “joy rides” and never returned.
“At the moment we’re missing 3,000 bikes,” explained Sylvain Raifaud, head of the Agemob company that currently operates the Velib system. That’s nearly 15% of over 20,000 Vélib bikes across Paris.
The sticky-fingered culprits aren’t necessarily professional thieves or organized crime rings. Instead, they’re often regular users who treat the shared bikes like disposable toys.
The city estimates that many people have figured out how to pry the bikes out of the system’s parking docks, unlocking one for a casual cruise and then ditching it somewhere far from a docking station.
Once pried free, the bikes are technically usable for the next 24 hours until their automatic locking feature kicks in. At that point, the bikes are often simply abandoned. Some end up in alleyways. Others get tossed in rivers. A few just disappear completely.
And since the bikes are intended to be parked at their many docking stations around the city, they don’t have GPS chips, further complicating recovery of “liberated” bikes.
The issue started small but has grown into more than an inconvenience – it’s beginning to undermine the entire purpose of the service. With bikes going missing at such a high rate, many Vélib docking stations are left empty, especially during rush hours.
Riders looking for a quick commute or a convenient hop across town are increasingly finding themselves without available bikes, or having to walk long distances to find a functioning one.
That kind of unreliability chips away at user confidence and threatens to drive potential riders back into cars, cabs, or other less sustainable forms of transport at a time when Paris has already made great strides to dramatically reduce car usage in the city.
The losses are financially painful, too. Replacing stolen or vandalized bikes isn’t cheap, and the resources spent on tracking down missing equipment or reinforcing anti-theft measures are stretching thin. Vélib has faced theft and vandalism issues before, especially during its early years, but this latest surge has officials sounding the alarm with renewed urgency.
Officials acknowledge that there’s no easy fix. Paris, like many cities with bike-share systems, walks a fine line between accessibility and accountability. Part of what makes Vélib so successful is its ease of use and widespread availability. But those same features make it vulnerable to misuse – especially when enforcement is limited and the consequences for abuse are minimal.
The timing of the problem is especially unfortunate. In recent years, Paris has seen impressive results in reducing car traffic, expanding bike lanes, and promoting cycling as a key part of its sustainable transport strategy. Vélib is a cornerstone of that plan. But if the system becomes too unreliable, it risks losing the very people it was designed to serve.
Meanwhile, as Parisians increasingly find themselves staring at empty docks, the challenge for the city and Vélib will be to restore confidence in the system without making it harder to use. That means striking the right balance between freedom and responsibility, between open access and protection against abuse.
In a city where cycling is supposed to be the future of mobility, losing thousands of bikes to joyriders and sticky fingers isn’t just frustrating; it’s unsustainable.
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