Fisker bankruptcy plan approved after deal on vehicle tech support

By Dietrich Knauth

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Electric vehicle startup Fisker received court approval of its bankruptcy liquidation plan on Friday, following last-minute negotiations to preserve the company's $46 million sale of its remaining inventory of about 3,000 Ocean SUVs.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Horan signed off on Fisker's bankruptcy plan at a court hearing in Wilmington, Delaware, clearing the company to repay creditors with assets remaining after it sold off its vehicle fleet.

Fisker filed for bankruptcy in June, after failing to reach a partnership with Nissan for production of its electric vehicles. While those talks were ongoing, Fisker's cash flow problems forced it pause vehicle production and lay off staff.

Fisker ultimately chose to liquidate its operations in bankruptcy, selling off its remaining vehicle fleet to buyer American Lease and transferring its intellectual property to creditors.

The vehicle fleet sale hit a last-minute snag this week, after American Lease realized that Fisker would not be able to transfer essential data and support services to new servers operated by the buyer.

Without the data transfer, the vehicle fleet would be cut off from essential services such as updating vehicle software, reviewing diagnostic data, and allowing drivers to remotely access their vehicles.

American Lease resolved the dispute by agreeing to pay an additional $2.5 million over five years for future tech support services. The deal also will benefit other Fisker Ocean owners, who had similarly expressed concern about what would happen to their vehicles after Fisker's servers shut down, attorneys said in court on Friday.

The hyper-competitive EV market has seen several companies, including Proterra, Lordstown and Electric Last Mile Solutions, file for bankruptcy in the past two years as they grappled with weakening demand, fundraising hurdles and operational challenges from global supply chain issues.

(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Bill Berkrot)