Fisker Inc. has announced the establishment of The Fisker Magic Works, its U.K.-based specialty vehicle engineering and development division. This newly created operation will focus on low-volume, rapid-development vehicle programs and specialized versions of the Fisker portfolio. The Fisker Magic Works will instill futuristic design, technology and innovation into high-profile products supporting the mainstream business.
Fisker also confirmed it is hiring respected industry veteran David King as senior vice president of engineering to lead this new U.K.-based operation. Most recently, King served as vice president and chief special operations officer at Aston Martin Lagonda.
“We are on full-speed to deliver four distinct vehicle lines by 2025, driving innovation forward and pushing radical new ideas into the global car market,” said Fisker CEO and Chairman, Henrik Fisker. “The Fisker Magic Works provides us with an opportunity to create sustainable and fantastic vehicles outside the confines of established industry segments. Bringing on David King further strengthens our engineering and creative expertise, and I’ve already assigned him two exciting projects which will showcase our capability in highly specialized materials and technologies designed especially for the eco-conscious automotive enthusiast.”
In addition to this new commitment to the U.K., earlier this year, Fisker confirmed London would be the location for the company’s first U.K. brand experience center. The Fisker Ocean is on target for a Nov. 17, 2022, start of production, with deliveries to the U.K. commencing during 2023.
“This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to create a new engineering center dedicated to bringing amazing ideas to life,” said King. “Having spent my career working on vehicles with high displacement gasoline engines, I am relishing working with the design and engineering freedom that electrification provides.”
King brings more than 30 years of vehicle engineering and product development leadership experience, primarily at Aston Martin, including serving as president of Aston Martin Racing. His accomplishments include the DB7 V12 Vantage and clean-sheet platform development resulting in the DB9 and Vantage. King’s work on several joint-OEM, rapid development platform-sharing projects with Ford, Jaguar and Daimler is particularly relevant to Fisker’s asset-light, compressed timeline philosophy.
Most recently, King successfully led a team of approximately 100 engineers to launch a series of specialty vehicles and develop the ‘Q by Aston Martin’ bespoke and customization service.
