Fisker speeds up search for U.S. assembly plant to win tax credits

Fisker Inc. is accelerating the search for a U.S. production site for its Ocean SUV after the White House announced plans to focus electric-car subsidies on those made in North America.

The company is considering a range of options, including buying a factory or extending its partnership with Magna International Inc., CEO Henrik Fisker said Monday at the Paris auto show. The EV startup is on track to start making the Ocean at Magna’s plant in Austria next month, he said.

“I am looking at bringing Ocean production over to the U.S., and we are looking at some opportunities to produce as early as 2024,” Fisker said in an interview. The U.S. policy shift “has definitely made us think to accelerate because we think this might give us an advantage.”

The U.S. recently passed new laws restricting eligibility for tax credits of as much as $7,500 per vehicle to cars assembled in North America, as part of sweeping reforms to boost local supply chains. The measures will extend to critical battery components, starting with a 50 percent threshold from next year, and to locally sourced minerals. Fisker’s Oceans that are made in Austria will run on batteries supplied from China.

In the U.S., Fisker may work with Magna, which in September outlined plans for an electric-car factory in the country. The EV maker already has a deal with Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., to make its upcoming Pear model at a factory in Lordstown, Ohio. Foxconn earlier purchased the former General Motors site from struggling startup Lordstown Motors Corp.

In Austria, Fisker expects Magna will make as many as 50,000 Oceans next year at an eventual rate of about 7,000 SUVs a month. Talks with Magna to boost capacity to 150,000 units at the plant are ongoing. The outcome will in part depend on how demand shapes up, particularly in a darkening economic environment in Europe, Fisker said.

Current reservations are at over 61,000 vehicles, he said.