Business Blunders

Business Blunders

Fisker the Frisker

An electric car entrepreneur offers a valuable business lesson: If at first you don't succeed, file, file again

Al Lewis's avatar
Al Lewis
Jun 27, 2024
∙ Paid

“Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything.” – Wyatt Earp


A cop once clocked renowned auto designer Henrik Fisker at 97 mph on California’s Interstate 5 and wrote him a ticket. Four hours later, another highway patrolman nailed him at 88 mph and asked, “How long since your last ticket?”

“Well, actually, not that long ago,” Fisker replied.

This illustrative slice of Fisker’s life comes from a 2009 Los Angeles Times piece. Today, he’s facing a different question, “How long since your last bankruptcy?”

Fisker, whose first electric car company went belly up in 2013, has once again left his investors, creditors, employees and customers on the side of road.

Why would anybody buy a car from this guy? He already had a history of patting folks down for money and then stiffing them in bankruptcy court.

Henrik Fisker speaking at Motorworks Munich in September 2023. (Photo Credit: Alexander Migl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.)

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