USA’s Fisker Inc plans to set up tech centre in India first, this year

As the disruptive era in the automotive industry progresses, newer players equipped with new ideas are emerging with an objective to offer differentiated products. And India continues to be a base of choice for sourcing and technology development, in addition to being a target key market for vehicles. California-based Fisker Inc, which plans to enter the EV space in Q4 of calendar year 2022, is the latest to decide on setting up a technical centre in India. 

EVs being very software heavy and Fisker Inc aiming to offer highly innovative vehicles, India’s software engineering talent will be tapped first by the company. “As cars of the future have software pretty much in every commodity, we would look to set up a presence this year in India and tap into that phenomenal software talent already,” Geeta Fisker, co-founder and CFO, Fisker Inc told Autocar Professional in an exclusive and comprehensive interview under the Autocar Professional Dialogue series. Bangalore and Hyderabad are the frontrunners to be the base for the software development centre.

Fisker Inc is also looking at sourcing components from suppliers in India. It is already in talks with some of them. While a core component like battery may be sourced from elsewhere, Geeta Fisker, who is also in charge of sourcing at Fisker Inc says, “there are many other components that we are working with global suppliers. India is definitely a contender both in software and hardware.”   

The company is scheduled to launch its first model, the Ocean SUV, at an entry price of $39,000 (about Rs 28.5 lakh). Work on two-three models is underway. Henrik Fisker, founder, chairman and CEO, Fisker Inc says, “We are looking at all vehicle segments right now. We're looking at redefining what a vehicle should be. Even also potentially something that's slightly below the Fisker Ocean.” 

And that vehicle could possibly be part of the new alliance between Fisker Inc and Foxconn under the project PEAR (Personal Electric Automotive Revolution), announced on February 24.

During the interview with the Fiskers, done before the Foxconn collaboration announcement, Henrik Fisker said, “One of our strengths is we can make extremely fast decisions and they're based on the business case for each model we do so you will probably see us create some other partnerships in the future.” The Fisker-Foxconn collaboration for the EV model envisages a sales volume of over 250,000 units globally, including India.  

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Fisker Inc's Geeta and Henrik Fisker I Interview I Autocar Professional