The Electric Vehicle Conglomerate

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Fisker Automotive originated with the early Fisker Karma, a sports car contract-manufactured and sold in limited numbers.  The vehicle, while attractive, had a number of software glitches, was at the time competing with the hype of Tesla, and lacked the manufacturing backing to give investors or consumers the sense that the still-nascent EV space would not be littered with dead EVs and dead EV companies in a few years.  In effect, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, as Fisker failed to sell enough units and ultimately shut down, ultimately selling its brand to a Chinese group to carry on the name 'Karma'.

Fisker re-emerged with the promise of the Fisker Pear and Fisker Ocean, and contracted manufacturing to Magna in the EU, but selling cars in the US.  While supplying hands-on techs and selling direct to consumers, the Ocean--Fisker's flagship entrée--had some of the same problems the Karma did, and was met with a heap of criticism.  Again, as a result, the Fisker Ocean, despite being an attractive vehicle in many regards, failed to sell, and Fisker Automotive faces bankrupcy again, and filed for bankrupcy as this article was being written.

As a designer, Fisker offers unique perspectives and novel implementations.  The public reporting about Fisker's business has been scathing, and the conclusion one must reach is that Fisker the man must create Fisker vehicles, under the umbrella of a careful producer/manufacturer.

It was Fisker that originally made me consider a link-up with Apple, having learned that the company had poured billions into the project of building a car, before ultimately shuttering the program without creating a product.  Fisker then, is one part of a multi-piece puzzle, lacking manufacturing experience as well as the physical manufacturing facilities to produce them.

Within the imagined paradigm, Fisker would produce designs and perform prototyping, and then be manufactured by the parent organization or, through that organization, by a third entity. It would not be the aim to strip down the imagined features, it would be to celebrate and tune them with the backing of perfectionists with experience where Fisker has historically lacked.  The consideration of a third entity leads us to:

Volvo has been producing vehicles for a long time.  They presently produce vehicles across the world, with notable facilities in Charleston, South Carolina, Mexico City, Mexico, and Belgium.  Belgium represents Volvo's production hub for the EU market.  Presently, while the manufacturing arrangements are being downgraded on account of Fisker's financial woes, Fisker's vehicles were being produced in nearby Austria.

Volvo Group currently has a market cap of some $33B.  This proposed acquisition is far and away the most substantial, and aims to serve as a baseline foundation for many other endeavors.  It may truly be impossible to integrate Volvo into this scheme, but it should be included in both the context of Apple's original aspirations, its move into the EV space, its ownership of Mack Trucks, and its inherent economy of scale.

While i am not especially concerned with markets outside the United States, i know a company like Apple would very well be interested.  It is also for this reason that, while Volvo might manufacture its own and Fisker cars in the US and EU, Fisker's outreach to Tata Motors might lead to multiple manufacturers for different markets, pursuant to the primary company's (in this case, Apple's) interest.

Ownership of Volvo also allows for a deep integration of the software Apple would develop with the Volvo packages under production or about to enter production.  Volvo, then, would be effectively an "Apple exclusive" (or vice-versa--the only company with Apple software interface), while a full integration programme is considered and implemented (for example, bundling various Apple gadgets as part of the sales process).

Self-driving seems somewhat out of Apple's wheelhouse, but that should not stop the effort for Apple vehicles to have a unique Ai equivalent to Tesla's FSD or Waymo's offerings.

Canoo is, to me, one of the most exciting EV startups going after a path to big growth and sustained profitability.  After initially gaining a contract from Walmart, Canoo could not fulfill the order.  So, they pieced together a variety of other contracts, became a NASA launch effort contributor, threw in a modified version of their vehicle to the USPS...and their stock still isn't going anywhere.

Canoo, like many other companies in the space, have made warnings about their ability to continue business as a going concern.  Unlike a variety of other companies, Canoo is not subject to contentious legal conflicts, and has produced what appears to be a prototypical form of what one might want for a USPS LLV retrofit--their EV skateboard.

Canoo has also produced a prototype for the US military, and, while the company was initially conceived as a lifestyle vehicle, offers substantial flexibility in the format desired by Walmart--a last-mile delivery vehicle.

Canoo's business, by virtue of its relationship with Walmart, offers a potential path forward.  While that path is not straight-forward or necessarily parallel to the LLV retrofit project or NGDV project (Canoo designed with composites while USPS wants aluminum), the underlying technology has appeared from example to be functional in all the ways that one would want for an LLV replacement.  In addition, Canoo acquired the assets of the now-defunct Arrival, which had merely produced a composite-paneled van geared towards serving UPS, without demonstrating its technical bonafides.  While Arrival was never compelling to me as a product or company, there may be some interesting manufacturing concepts within the IP that Arrival billed as revolutionary.

Lordstown Motors was meant to bring US manufacturing back on US soil.  It effectively did that.  However, caught in legal conflict with several other companies (including Karma Automotive), Lordstown Motors shut down after representing a novel kind of consumer pickup, facilitated by in-hub wheel motors.

In consideration to what one would want out of an LLV retrofit, in-hub motors have the potential to be precisely the answer for a small box on wheels, carrying limited cargo.  The Endurance, Lordstown's flagship vehicle, was never touted as being an F350-killer.  It was not a workhorse truck--it was a light duty consumer vehicle, stuck halfway between luxury and basic, but pretty enough to fetch a decent price-point, if people were in the market for a) a new vehicle, or b) an EV.

The Lordstown team produced some number of Endurance pickups, and retained a relationship with the foreign company that designed and produced the motors.  Lordstown's assets were sold back to Lordstown's original owner at bankruptcy, who then started another EV company with the aspiration to sell the Endurance with a more 'adventure' theme, with the notion that the hub motors would facilitate offroading.  As far as i'm aware, nothing has been produced since Lordstown sold its factory to Foxconn and shut down.

The Endurance is an interesting piece of equipment that could better capitalize on its name and function.  The Endurance pickup could be a middle-of-the road consumer and ourdoors vehicle, if it was released at the proper time.

Lightning eMotors serves as a potential lynchpin to the transition from internal gasline combustion engine (ICE) to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEV) by assisting small fleets in acquiring EV trucks manufactured by hand using Ford's existing chassis and frames.  

While the company has filed for bankrupcy after failing to find a financier, and has indicated a shutdown of operations, the general assets of experience might serve as a useful addition within the framework of EV reconstruction.  There is and will be a need for training programs and on-hand experience, and while contract conversions may not be a big business, in the scheme of assembly the skills developed within that role serve to improve the overall ability of the workforce.

In early 2024, Gillig indicated they would be purchasing much of Lightning eMotors' assets, and bringing onboard some engineers, while discontinuing the retrofit operations.  Gillig is an old company producing busses and trolleys, and is in the process of supplying Seattle with all-electric trolley systems, despite not having any of the electrical components on hand.  They simply provided Seattle with the body/shell.  Between an interest in producing service vehicles (such as school busses) for municipalities, supplying electric city transit options like trolleys, trams, and trainsets,  and the interest in Lightning eMotors' experience in retrofitting for the USPS, Gillig might subsequently be the replacement acquisition, restoring Lightning in another form.