After signing Mills group as 1st U.S. dealer, Fisker heads to NADA Show to recruit more

Fisker Inc. signed its first U.S. dealer partnership with Mills Automotive Group of North Carolina and the EV startup expects to recruit additional retailers at the NADA Show in Las Vegas this week.

"I'm absolutely excited for this partnership, and we want to thank Fisker for its confidence in our group," Damian Mills, CEO of the group, said in a statement Wednesday. "We will instill Fisker's vision and mission into our stores on day one."

The Mills group intends to open three Fisker sales locations, the automaker said. Fisker is sending a shipment of its sole model, the Ocean crossover, to the Mills Group in February.

Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker is attending the NADA Show and the automaker said it "expects to sign several additional dealers" after the event.

The full-EV brand announced in early January that it was shifting from direct sales to franchised dealers in the U.S. and Europe to grow more quickly.

"Our pivot to the dealer partnership strategy has been moving incredibly fast," Henrik Fisker said in the statement. "With interest expressed by over 200 dealers globally and over 100 in North American alone, I am looking forward to signing up more dealer partners."

Fisker held an open house for dealers at its Manhattan Beach, Calif., headquarters Tuesday, where Mills signed the partnership agreement.

At the open house, Fisker showed prospective retailers prototypes of its future products, including the Alaska pickup and Pear subcompact crossover that the company plans to launch in 2025.

"Fisker executives reviewed marketing, sales and service plans as well as technology, engineering, design, user experience, and the over-the-air software road map that is already available on the Ocean and will inform the development of all new Fisker vehicles," the company said.

In an interview with Automotive News in late January, Henrik Fisker said his appearance at the NADA Show would be his first.

"I've never been to the national dealership conference, so I'm excited about it," Fisker said. "We have a private meeting room in one of the hotels for dealer meetings, and we'll have vehicles there for dealers who are interested in Fisker to try it out."

With a small fleet of Oceans in Las Vegas, the company intends to show dealers that it's unique in the market.

Distribution of the Ocean, which starts at $38,999 before shipping, has been a pain point for the automaker since it launched in Europe and the U.S. in late June. Shipping charges vary with location.

While Fisker produced more than 10,000 vehicles in 2023, it delivered only about 4,700 to customers, the company said in December.