Fisker to integrate dealership model with direct sales to boost EV deliveries

(Reuters) - Electric vehicle company Fisker said on Thursday that it would integrate dealerships alongside its direct-to-customer distribution strategy to boost sales.

The company expects to have about 100 dealer locations in Europe and North America, Fisker said.

While the California-based startup made more than 10,000 vehicles in 2023, it delivered only about 4,700 units of the Ocean sport utility vehicles last year due to distribution constraints.

Fisker, which sells its vehicles across the United States and Canada apart from other markets in Europe, has only two showrooms or Fisker Lounges in North America - one in Los Angeles and the other in New York. In other locations, it has retail stores called Fisker Center+.

The company hopes to have at least 50 dealers on board this year, CEO Henrik Fisker told the Wall Street Journal.

Lucid, Rivian and Fisker have followed an online and direct-to-consumer model that was started by Elon Musk-led Tesla, in their efforts to cut out middlemen that dealership models have.

Earlier this week, Vietnamese electric car maker VinFast Auto said that it had signed its first five dealerships in Texas, New York, Kansas and North Carolina. Swedish EV maker Polestar also uses a dealership model.

(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shweta Agarwal)