Pioneering electric vehicle and Tesla competitor Henrik Fisker quit Twitter this week after his old rival Elon Musk reached an agreement to acquire the social media platform for $44 billion.
Fisker, supervisor tram manufacturer Fisker Inc., wrote on Instagram Tuesday: “I believe 100% in freedom of speech. But I don’t want my freedom of expression to be actively managed or controlled by a competitor. And I don’t want a competitor determining how my followers experience Fisker as we grow our company.”
Fisker’s Twitter handle is no longer live, although his company’s Twitter feed has remained active as of Tuesday with a post about Henrik Fisker’s driving test.
Musk did not appear to have reacted directly to Fisker’s move on Tuesday, tweet two joint messages about freedom of speech.
“Freedom of speech”, I mean simply that is in accordance with the law.
I am against censorship that goes beyond the law.
If people wanted less freedom of speech, they would ask the government to pass legislation to that effect.
Therefore, going beyond the law is against the will of the people.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk)
April 26, 2022
Fisker and Musk have long been rivals. Tesla sued Fisker in 2008 alleging his design firm stole Tesla’s technology and used it to develop its own car. An arbitrator has ruled in Fisker’s favor. Henrik Fisker did the design work on Tesla Model WILL sedan before its debut, when the project was known by the codename WhiteStar.
In the early 2010s, Fisker’s first automaker, Fisker Carswas a rival to Tesla and for a time they were almost on par as Fisker promised to bring to his enticing sedan called the Karma followed by a series of sleek cars and intersect. However, the company has a problem with the battery packed up and ran into a string of bad luck, including lost a vehicle shipment due to fires and flooding related to Hurricane Sandy in 2012. It went bankrupt in 2013. Since then, the electric vehicle landscape has changed dramatically, with most of the major automakers taking the lead. invest heavily in technology and newcomers like Lucid and Rivian join the conflict.
Tesla, meanwhile, succeeded and catapulted Musk to even greater international fame, along with his PayPal and SpaceX ventures.
Henrik Fisker regrouped and founded Fisker Inc. in 2016. It’s going public in 2020 and is planning to roll it out Ocean SUV this year.
Before founding EV startups, Fisker was known as a prominent sports car designer who as of 2005 Aston Martin V8 Vantage and 1999 BMW Z8 among his highlights.
Related videos:
