Fisker CEO to Visit Lordstown Plant Friday

LORDSTOWN, Ohio– Henrik Fisker, the Chairman and CEO of electric-vehicle manufacturer Fisker Inc., is slated to visit what is now Foxconn’s Lordstown plant on Friday.

Fisker Inc. confirmed early Thursday that it would begin production of its new electric vehicle, the Fisker Pear, at the plant starting in 2024, now that the factory has been sold to the Taiwan tech giant.

Fisker’s confirmation comes after Lordstown Motors Corp. announced Wednesday the sale of its plant to Foxconn for $230 million. The transaction also included a contract manufacturing agreement to produce the Lordstown Motors Endurance pickup and a joint venture agreement to manufacture future Lordstown Motors vehicles on Foxconn’s mobility-in-harmony, or MIH, platform.

Although the company announced plans to build the Pear in Lordstown last year, the entire deal was contingent upon Foxconn acquiring the plant from Lordstown Motors.

Last year, Fisker and Foxconn entered into a contract manufacturing agreement in which Foxconn would produce the Fisker Pear, an acronym for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution.

The Fisker Pear will enter production in 2024. Both the Fisker and Foxconn teams are fully engaged and expect to build a minimum of 250,000 units a year at the plant after a ramp up period, the company said.

Fisker told analysts during an earnings call last week that more than 2,500 buyers have placed reservations for the vehicle, which has not been publicly revealed. The company anticipates that production of the Pear will reach 1 million units worldwide by 2027.

Some, but not all, of those units would be produced in Lordstown.

Although the 6.2 million square-foot Lordstown plant has the capacity to produce potentially 500,000 vehicles per year, not all of the manufacturing would be done in Ohio, Fisker said during the call. “What I understand is that we have clear priority, and will take the vast majority of the volume of that plant.”

The Lordstown plant is currently building pre-production vehicles of the Lordstown Motors Endurance, an all-electric pickup truck that is scheduled to begin limited production in September.

Production of the Pear would also occur in Europe and Asia – especially China and potentially India, Fisker said.

Fisker and a team of engineers will visit the plant Friday, according to a news release from the company.

“The Pear will be a revolutionary electric vehicle that won’t fit into any existing segment,” Fisker said in a statement. “The exterior design will feature new lighting technology and a wraparound front windscreen inspired by a glider plane glass canopy, enhancing frontal vision,”

The Pear will have an expected base price below $29,900 before incentives.

Fisker has designed and engineered the vehicle to reduce parts for rapid, simplified manufacturing. The Fisker Pear will be built on a new proprietary architecture, and the new platform will underpin two additional models that Fisker will introduce at a later date.

“Our engineering group is working on new features and high-tech solutions for the Pear that will change how we use and enjoy a vehicle in the city,” Fisker said.

The Fisker Pear follows the company’s first vehicle, the Fisker Ocean, which starts production in Austria on Nov. 17, 2022.

Copyright 2024 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.