Fisker CEO on Winning Electric Vehicle Market Share with an Anti-Tesla Business Model

There’s a euphoric market for electric vehicles. New companies with small track records and giant ambitions are testing the waters of the stock market to raise funds and capitalize on the excitement. One of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) companies on investors’ radars is Fisker, which hopes to capture a significant share of the market with a business model far different from Tesla’s.

Dion Rabouin, Host of Voices of Wall Street and Markets Editor at Axios, spoke with Henrik Fisker, founder and CEO of Fisker, about how the company plans to ramp up production at a faster rate than Tesla did, why its low pricing puts its Fisker Ocean SUV in a league of its own, and how a Biden presidency impacts the electrification of the automobile industry.

Key takeaway: Fisker doesn’t want to be like Tesla, and that could make or break the company. Unlike Tesla, Fisker doesn’t see the value in building its own factory, making its own cars, or building its own battery. Fisker’s partnership with Magna, the world’s third largest automotive supplier, is crucial. Henrik compares his company’s relationship with Magna to Apple’s relationship with Foxconn, where Magna will build their vehicles like Foxconn built the phones for Apple. While this could help Fisker ramp up production faster, there’s a lot of risk in being that reliant on a partner, and the lack of vertical integration could put a cap on the company’s growth potential or stunt the ability to create a competitive edge.