The electric car industry was, for a little while there, the new gold rush. It was relatively easy to get public or private funding for promising battery-powered vehicles like the Fisker Ocean, infrastructure support was growing, and investors were terrified of being left out of the next big thing.
In retrospect, it’s obvious that this was an economic bubble. Of course, it was obvious five years ago, too (and it was especially obvious to Toyota). Fast, easy money is never sustainable, and the scrapyard is full of electric cars that were supposed to lead the industry into a new era. Whether through mismanagement or just plain bad timing, these once-promising EV companies simply failed to go the distance.
Fisker Automotive
The Fisker Ocean Was Set To Revolutionize The SUV Segment
Date Founded
2016
Bankruptcy Filed
2024
Vehicles Produced
11,193
The closest thing we have to an EV boom success story on this list, Fisker actually built approximately 11,193 units before filing for bankruptcy. Many EV drivers who actually bought the Fisker Ocean have been left going aftermarket for recall-related maintenance, owing to long waits and difficulties getting the cars serviced by the manufacturer.
Blame for Fisker’s failure has largely been placed at the feet of founder Henrik Fisker. The Fisker Ocean aimed to provide accessible electric power and nudge EVs out of the luxury segment and towards the mainstream. A starting MSRP of $38,999 for the cheapest SUV, and failure to deliver on the promised Fisker Ronin supercar, marked the disappointing downfall of the brand that hoped to rival Tesla.
Canoo
The Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle Was Intended To Be A “Loft On Wheels”
Date Founded
2017
Bankruptcy Filed
2025
Vehicles Produced
22
Canoo had a foot in the commercial electric vehicle segment, but also envisioned the EV as, essentially, the next step in the lineage of station wagons and minivans. That is, cozy, roomy family cars, with cabins more akin to living rooms than luxury cars.
Canoo had plenty of support, partnering with Hyundai and merging with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. IV. with a projected evaluation of $2.4 billion. Unfortunately, the stock price plummeted following the acquisition of EV rival Arrival (also on this list), and the company declared Chapter 7 with less than $50,000 in assets, and just 22 vehicles produced.
Lordstown Motors
Lordstown Produced Fewer Than 100 Instances Of Its Endurance Pickup
Date Founded
2018
Bankruptcy Filed
2023
Vehicles Produced
31
Lordstown Motors Corporation still exists under the name of Nu Ride Inc., following a June 27, 2023 Chapter 11 filing that saw the brand selling off its assets. The brand’s flagship pickup, the Lordstown Endurance, showed promise as a versatile $52,500 all-wheel drive truck, but the company had only produced 31 units by the time the assets were sold off.
Bollinger Motors
The Bollinger B4 Chassis Cab Fell Well Short Of Production Goals
Date Founded
2014
Bankruptcy Filed
2025
Vehicles Produced
40
Bollinger Motors was initially founded to build off-road EVs, unveiling an impressive 295-lb aluminum chassis in 2017. The company eventually moved into commercial vehicles, alongside passenger trucks and SUVs like the Bollinger B2. The brand’s downfall has been attributed to unpaid supplier bills, and an inability to repay a $10 million loan from Mullen Automotive. The story of Bollinger Motors ends with the auctioning of its final 20 units in 2026.
Proterra
The ZX5 Electric Transit Bus Was Supposed To Reinvent Public Transport
Proterra ZX5 electric busJLiu1596 via Wikimedia
Date Founded
2004
Bankruptcy Filed
2024
Vehicles Produced
1,300+
Proterra is a brand that predates the most recent EV boom. Based out of Golden, Colorado, Proterra Inc. was building buses all the way back in the mid-00s, pioneering products like the EcoRide, a battery-electric bus with a hydrogen fuel cell range extender. Proterra built more than 1,300 city buses over 20 years in the business. You may have ridden in one yourself.
Unfortunately, supply chain hangups and unpaid debts following the COVID-19 Pandemic sank the small company. The Pandemic era was a major disruption to business, here in the States and globally, and, despite a two-decade legacy in the industry, Proterra was ultimately a small, vulnerable manufacturer, which found itself incapable of withstanding the losses that larger brands were able to shrug off. Proof that you can do everything right, and still go belly up when the cards don’t fall in your favor.
Electric Last Mile Solutions
ELMS Hoped To Mass-Produce Its Class 1 Urban Delivery EV
Date Founded
2021
Bankruptcy Filed
2022
Vehicles Produced
301 (estimated)
At one point, ELMS had hoped to build 20,000 of its Class 1 Urban Delivery EVs. That number was eventually cut to 1,000, then 500, and, finally, we had to rely on Google Earth aerial photos to verify the existence of an estimated 301 units in January 2022.
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ELMS was taken down by what you might call a bankruptcy BINGO. Leadership scandals, an SEC investigation, lack of funding, allegations of stock fraud, and a misguided business plan to rebadge Chinese-made electric vans. Mullen Automotive would buy up the assets in 2022.
Indi EV
Indi EV’s Indi One Never Made It To The Assembly Line
Indi One EVKevauto via Wikimedia
Date Founded
2017
Bankruptcy Filed
2023
Vehicles Produced
0
Indi EV deserves some credit for going all-in on the futuristic look for its dual-motor all-wheel drive EV. The Indi One was styled by Andre Hudson with a sleek, forward-thinking silhouette and a streamlined two-tone color scheme. The Indi One promised 275 miles of range, and pricing starting at around $45,000. Unfortunately, the car never hit production, as the company building it went further and further into debt, coming out with just $2.8 million in assets to more than $26 million in debt, as of 2023.
Ideanomics, Inc.
Ideanomics Represents A Big Portfolio Of EV Companies
Ideanomics logoIdeanomics
Date Founded
2004
Bankruptcy Filed
2024
Vehicles Produced
N/A
Ideanomics, Inc. is not a manufacturer of EVs in the same sense as Fisker and Tesla. Rather, it’s an EV company based out of New York City, holding brands like VIA Motors (maker of extended-range VTRUX pickups) and the Energica Motor Company (known for its electric performance motorcycles) in its portfolio. Ideanomics filed for bankruptcy in 2024, stemming from fraud charges, and has been looking to sell the assets off in order to pay back creditors ever since.
Arrival
The Arrival Van Never Met Its Lofty Production Goals
Arrival electric vanOgidya via Wikimedia
Date Founded
2015
Bankruptcy Filed
2024
Vehicles Produced
20
Arrival was actually a British EV company, based out of Luxembourg, but the brand had a division here in the US, took a bulk of its funding from American fund manager BlackRock, and even built factories here. The American offices went down with the ship when the company failed to secure necessary funding to stay in business, with just 20 units having been produced.
A lawsuit would have it that Arrival never actually had the facilities to manufacture the EVs promised in a $1.2 billion contract for 10,000 units. Overpromising is proving to be a key theme on this list.
Nikola Corp.
The Hydrogen-Cell Nikola FCEV Semi-Truck Was Produced In Very Small Numbers
Date Founded
2014
Bankruptcy Filed
2025
Vehicles Produced
117
A producer of heavy-duty commercial vehicles, running on both battery-electric and fuel-cell, the Nikola Corporation built an impressive range of innovative concept vehicles over the years, including a turbine-electric semi truck. An SEC investigation saw CEO Trevor Milton indicted, with the company filing for Chapter 11 in 2025.
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By the time the company was shut down, it had produced 117 vehicles, all of which would have to be sold off in order to try and cover unpaid debts, which were estimated at anywhere from $1 billion to $10 billion by the time the company filed for bankruptcy, while valued at 44 cents a share. Lucid Motors now owns many of the company’s facilities, while Hyroad Energy bought up 113 of Nikola’s trucks.
Sources: Fisker, Nasdaq, r/Muln,
