13 Biggest Electric Vehicle Business Failures in American History

In 1907, Anderson Detroit Electric Car Co. built its first electric car, the Detroit Electric, which was actually quite popular in the late 1910 and early 1920s. At the time, the quiet and pollution-free electric cars were especially popular with women. Even Clara Ford, Henry’s wife, drove one. The company built 13,000 electric cars from 1907 to 1939. In 2008, a group of entrepreneurs revived the brand.

Originally founded in 2005, Aptera Motors set out to build an ultra-efficient three-wheel electric car, the Aptera 2e, but had trouble getting funding for this type of vehicle. It then created the 4e, a four-wheeled car. Still, it failed to secure funding from the Department of Energy and shuttered in 2011. Aptera was relaunched in 2019 thanks to a $2.8 million crowdfunding campaign and announced in January its Launch Edition. The three-wheeler is integrated with solar charging.

Said to be the first electric vehicle manufacturer, Baker Motor Vehicle Co. rolled out its first model, the Baker Imperial Runabout, at the Automobile Club of America’s First Annual Automobile Show in New York City in 1899. With 3-4 horsepower, the car revved up to a top speed of 12 mph. The car got a boost when Thomas Edison bought one. In 1914, Baker merged with another electric vehicle maker at the time, Rauch and Lang, which is also on this list. Comedian and car collector Jay Leno famously owns a Baker Electric Coupe.

Bright Automotive closed down in 2012 after failing to get a low-interest loan from the Department of Energy. The manufacturer had received $5 million from General Motors but was unable to secure government funding. Bright executives blamed onerous loan terms from the Department of Energy for the failure. The Bright Automotive IDEA was a plug-in hybrid light cargo vehicle designed to get about 100 miles per gallon.

After losing three top executives and then announcing substantial risk about the company’s future in May 2022, EV SPAC Canoo took an optimistic tone in its third quarter report in November, saying Walmart has placed orders for 4,500 vehicles. All told, the company estimated it had $750 million of binding orders on the books as of the third quarter. Still, the company also said it was low on cash, and in February this year announced selling $52 million in shares to stay alive.

At one point, Coda Automotive raised $344 from investors, including former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. After selling fewer than 100 of its electric-powered sedans, it filed for bankruptcy protection in 2013. Its five-passenger car, introduced in 2012, had a range of 125 miles on a single charge and was priced at $37,250.

Electric Last Mile Solutions, which had been developing a commercial electric vehicle and went public through an SPAC deal in 2021, was valued at $1.4 billion at the time. But the company has been under investigation by the SEC. The company’s chairman and CEO resigned in February 2022, and ELMS announced it was running out of cash. It filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June last year.

Mullen Automotive, an electric car startup that also went public in an SPAC merger, acquired Electric Last Mile Solutions in October of last year. Mullen’s share price (NASDAQ: MULN) declined 64% in the past year.

Beset by internal turmoil, including executive departures, and government investigations, Faraday Future announced it had secured enough funding in February to start production of its sport utility vehicle, the FF 91 Futurist, in March. The company’s major stockholder, FF Top Holdings, has reportedly agreed to a plan to increase the auto manufacturer’s outstanding stock to raise capital.

Fisker Automotive raised $1.4 billion in private and public investment, including a $529 million Department of Energy loan in 2009. However, it repeatedly missed production deadlines, and production of the Fisker Karma, a luxury plug-in sports car, was suspended in November 2012 after only building about 2,450 units. A year later, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and in 2014, Wanxiang Group, China’s largest auto parts company, bought the assets of Fisker Automotive.

The founder of Fisker Automotive, Henrik Fisker, launched Fisker Inc. (NYSE: FSR) in 2016 and the company is collaborating with Foxconn to produce EVs.

Two years after the EV pickup maker was founded, Lordstown Motors went public through an SPAC merger. According to Crunchbase, it raised a total of $1.1B in funding over five rounds. By March 2022, GM sold its stake in the company, and by May, the company said it would need more financing if it was to stay in business. In November, Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group indeed invested $170 million in the company, which started production though at a slow rate. It announced that it had produced 31 vehicles for sale as of Jan. 3, of which six had been delivered to customers.

Despite beating revenue expectations in the third quarter reported in November 2022, Nikola Motor lowered production guidance. The better-than-expected revenue was due to producing 75 heavy EV trucks in the third quarter, of which 63 were delivered to dealers. Still, the company produced about a third of what it had previously said it would and had to recall in September 2022 all 93 Tre BEVs because of a seat belt defect. Other problems plaguing the company include the founder being found guilty of fraud in October 2022.

Rauch and Lang was one of the first electric car manufacturers. Between 1905 and 1932, it manufactured cars like the Stanhope, a coupe powered by a 40-cell battery priced at $2,250. Unfortunately, Rauch and Lang could not compete with less expensive, mass-produced gas-powered cars.

Studebaker Corp. was launched in 1852 and was a leading supplier of horse-drawn wagons to the U.S. Army during the Civil War. In 1902, it began manufacturing an electric car, though production only lasted nine years. By the mid-1950s, Studebaker merged with automaker Packard, but could not compete with the Big Three car makers. It closed its factories in March 1966 after 114 years in business.