Potential Fisker Layoffs

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[00:00:59] Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Kila Wada podcast about electric vehicles, renewable

[00:01:27] energy, autonomous driving, and much, much more.

[00:01:30] My name is Bode and I am your host.

[00:01:33] And I got some good feedback from the episode where I talked about, you know, where

[00:01:40] I talked about Desole and off the entire supercharger team.

[00:01:44] So thank you, everyone, for sending that feedback.

[00:01:47] I really appreciate it.

[00:01:50] It made me feel good.

[00:01:52] So it was a lot of positive feedback.

[00:01:54] I'm going to be honest with you.

[00:01:56] Sometimes when I record these podcast episodes, I'm like, am I making any sense

[00:02:01] to anyone at all?

[00:02:05] So yeah.

[00:02:06] So thank you very much for the affirmations.

[00:02:10] Appreciate that.

[00:02:11] All right, let's go ahead and get into our news.

[00:02:14] Remember, this is a five minute episode today.

[00:02:16] So let's start off with Tesla news.

[00:02:20] According to hacker Green, the only Tesla is preparing to launch an in-car voice

[00:02:26] assistant.

[00:02:27] Now they kind of have it's not a voice assistant, but they kind of have like

[00:02:33] where you can, you know, talk to the car and tell it to do certain things

[00:02:36] like turn the air conditioner down or up or whatever.

[00:02:41] I would imagine that this would be something on par with Siri or sorry,

[00:02:46] with Apple's assistant or Google's assistant or Amazon's assistant.

[00:02:50] And I would also imagine that it's going to be the underpinnings of it

[00:02:55] will be Grock, which is Elon's AI efforts by any guess.

[00:03:02] All right, let's go ahead and move on to EV news.

[00:03:04] See this show moves very fast.

[00:03:06] If you want to buy or in the market to buy an EV, then check out Costco Auto

[00:03:13] because right now Costco Auto has some pretty decent discounts on Volvo,

[00:03:17] Chevy's, Polestar's and other EVs.

[00:03:19] And depending on the vehicle that you want, you can see between a thousand

[00:03:23] and two thousand dollars off.

[00:03:24] So just a little tip if you're looking for a new EV.

[00:03:30] BYD or build your dreams saw a pretty steep decline

[00:03:34] in the first quarter of 2024 in terms of profit.

[00:03:39] But we're going to talk about we're not going to talk about the money side.

[00:03:42] We're going to talk about how many vehicles they delivered in 2024.

[00:03:45] The first quarter of 2024, they sold 300,000 battery electric vehicles,

[00:03:51] which is a lot.

[00:03:52] That's pretty impressive, but not as impressive as the fourth quarter of 2023.

[00:03:57] In the fourth quarter of 2023, they sold 526,000 battery electric vehicles.

[00:04:02] Now, from a business standpoint, that's not great news, but from the standpoint

[00:04:06] of you got Tesla selling hundreds of thousands of cars

[00:04:10] and then everybody else selling in the tens of thousands of cars.

[00:04:14] BYD is bringing it at 300,000 cars in the fourth first quarter of 2024.

[00:04:23] We'll see what happens in the second quarter.

[00:04:24] Hopefully that picks up if you are a Tesla owner

[00:04:30] and you would like to purchase a Chevy Blazer EV, then you are in luck

[00:04:34] because Chevy is offering owners, Tesla owners,

[00:04:37] a $4000 discount on the Blazer EV.

[00:04:41] Now there are some weird conditions that you have to meet

[00:04:45] in order to get this discount.

[00:04:47] So check with your local dealer.

[00:04:48] But if you're someone who is interested in that $4000

[00:04:52] is a pretty good chunk of change.

[00:04:56] Rivian has received 827 million dollars in incentives

[00:05:01] to expand their normal Illinois plant so that they can build the R2,

[00:05:06] which is a lot of incentives.

[00:05:09] Don't really have much to say on that, though.

[00:05:12] And according to Insider,

[00:05:14] Fisker has reportedly warned employees by way of email

[00:05:19] of potential layoffs coming in the next two months

[00:05:22] and possible closure of the facility

[00:05:25] and the way they put it was facility, I'm guessing they mean business.

[00:05:30] But there is a silver lining in this

[00:05:32] and it's not it's not guaranteed, but there could be a silver lining.

[00:05:37] Lining I should say.

[00:05:39] Fisker is in discussions with several potential buyers and investors.

[00:05:43] So who knows what will happen?

[00:05:46] I don't want Fisker to go away.

[00:05:47] I've gone through this, you know, what seems like a lot

[00:05:52] over the last couple of weeks.

[00:05:54] I want Fisker to succeed simply because I like their product.

[00:05:58] I think they build cool looking cars.

[00:06:03] So hopefully somebody either buys them or an investor can swoop in

[00:06:06] and help them out so that they can continue on.

[00:06:10] Let's see.

[00:06:11] I think it was on Tuesday.

[00:06:12] I was driving to my kids soccer game

[00:06:14] and I saw two Fisker oceans within like a five block drive.

[00:06:20] One was driving the direction I was headed

[00:06:22] and one was driving the opposite direction

[00:06:24] and I passed it in the intersection.

[00:06:25] Like I don't want Fisker to succeed just

[00:06:28] so Heinrich Fisker can make a bunch of money.

[00:06:31] I want Fisker to succeed so people have more options

[00:06:35] in terms of electric vehicles.

[00:06:37] And more importantly, I want Fisker to succeed

[00:06:39] because the people who have already purchased them.

[00:06:42] I want them to have a positive experience.

[00:06:45] Some of these Fisker oceans are the first EVs

[00:06:48] that somebody that these people have ever purchased.

[00:06:52] And I don't want that to sour them on EVs

[00:06:56] and I also don't want to see them out a bunch of money.

[00:06:59] All right, one last thing in terms of Fisker,

[00:07:02] Heinrich and Gita Fisker are putting their LA mansion

[00:07:06] on the market for $35 million.

[00:07:09] This is an 11,800 square foot home,

[00:07:13] six bedrooms, eight baths.

[00:07:15] It features a spa, sauna, fitness center, infinity pool.

[00:07:19] If you can afford a $35 million,

[00:07:23] you can rent it for $125,000 a month.

[00:07:27] We don't know the reason why

[00:07:29] that they're selling the mansion, but we can guess.

[00:07:33] So my hope is they're using the money to infuse Fisker

[00:07:40] for just a little bit longer so somebody comes in

[00:07:43] and buys them.

[00:07:45] Keep them alive just a little bit longer

[00:07:47] because right now Fisker is sitting at like five cents a share

[00:07:51] or something like that.

[00:07:52] So all right, everybody, I am over on my time

[00:07:55] by about two minutes.

[00:07:56] So I would encourage you to email me if you have questions.

[00:08:01] It's BodiBodeye at 918digital.com.

[00:08:04] You also can find me on X at 918digital.

[00:08:08] Hope you all have a wonderful day

[00:08:10] and I will talk to you tomorrow.