Nikola Motors news

[kscarbel2]

CNH Industrial subsidiaries IVECO and FPT together with Nikola Motor Company

IVECO Trucks Presss Release  /  February 6, 2020

The IVECO manufacturing facility in Ulm, Germany, will host the production hub for the Nikola TRE battery electric and fuel-cell electric heavy truck models.

IVECO and FPT Industrial, the commercial vehicle and powertrain brands of CNH Industrial N.V. (NYSE: CNHI/ MI: CNHI), and Nikola Motor Company will manufacture, through their European Joint Venture, the Nikola TRE in Ulm, Germany, at the IVECO manufacturing facility.

This strategic and exclusive Heavy-Duty Truck partnership saw CNH Industrial taking a $250 million stake in Nikola as the lead Series D investor. The partnership announcement at the CNH Industrial Capital Markets Day in September 2019, was quickly followed in December with the unveiling of the Nikola TRE, a battery electric vehicle (BEV) heavy duty truck, which is the first step towards the fuel-cell electric (FCEV) model.

Today, the site in Ulm is IVECO’s chassis engineering hub, ideally situated at the heart of the Baden-Württemberg region, which is striving to become a leading hub for fuel-cell mobility thanks also to its skilled workforce and research labs. The region has committed a substantial investment to fund research and development projects in the area which has a strong automotive industry, with strategic project partnerships, meaning the Ulm facility will benefit from close proximity to key suppliers.

Furthermore, the German Federal Government recently released its draft National Hydrogen Strategy, which has the aim of expanding the pioneering role of Companies in hydrogen technologies. In this strategy, it commits a total of two billion euro to fund the hydrogen innovation programme, incl. the development of the necessary distribution infrastructure. “Our European joint-venture with NIKOLA and today’s announcement, is real proof that zero-emission long-haul transport is becoming a reality, resulting in tangible environmental benefits for Europe’s long distance hauliers and its citizens,” said Hubertus Mühlhäuser, Chief Executive Officer, CNH Industrial. “The decision to build the Nikola TRE in Ulm – a center of heavy-duty truck engineering excellence – underscores the site’s strategic location at the heart of Germany’s fuel cell technology cluster.”

In the first stage of the project, €40 million will be invested by the joint-venture Company to upgrade the manufacturing facility, which will focus on final assembly of the vehicle. Start of production is anticipated within the first quarter of 2021, with deliveries of the Nikola TRE beginning in the same year.

“The Nikola TRE is proving to be the most advanced articulated truck in the world and will continue to set the standard for zero-emission vehicles today and in the future” said Trevor Milton, Chief Executive Officer, Nikola Motor Company. “The decision to volume produce the TRE in the city of Ulm is a fitting example of how to create jobs, foster innovation, provide certainty to new zero-emission part suppliers and serve as an example to other OEM’s. The world is ready for zero-emission freight transportation, and the joint venture between Nikola and IVECO will be the first to deliver. I look forward to seeing the first production vehicles come off the line.”

The first models to enter production will be the battery-electric 4x2 and 6x2 articulated trucks with modular and scalable batteries with a capacity of up to 720 kWh and an electric powertrain that delivers up to 480 kW of continuous power output.

The Ulm facility will receive module supplies from IVECO´s manufacturing locations in Valladolid and Madrid, Spain, which will enable a rapid ramp up to meet expected customer demand. Fuel-cell electric versions, built on the same platform, will be tested under the EU-funded H2Haul project during 2021 for an expected market launch in 2023. The Nikola TRE currently in development is based on the new IVECO S-WAY platform and integrates Nikola’s truck technology, controls and infotainment. Testing is expected to begin in mid-2020 with prototypes showcased at the IAA 2020 commercial vehicle exhibition in Hannover, Germany this September.

“By drawing on our Gold standard World Class Manufacturing sites in Madrid and Valladolid, Spain, where the IVECO S-Way is produced, we are able to accelerate final assembly, powertrain integration and high-end customization of the Nikola TRE for a timely market introduction in 2021” said Gerrit Marx, President Commercial and Speciality Vehicles, CNH Industrial. This Joint Venture forms part of a wider partnership established with Nikola to accelerate industry transformation towards emission neutrality of Class 8 heavy-duty trucks in North America and Europe through the adoption of fuel-cell technology. The primary focus of the collaboration is to leverage each partners’ respective expertise to successfully deploy zero-emission heavy-duty trucks and to disrupt the industry with an entirely new business model.

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[kscarbel2]

So my sister has the Corona virus and is not doing well. She lives 400 miles from me in St. George, Utah.

She has a hard time breathing. She has a deep dry cough, sore everything, fever. went to the hospital. They took a sample and turned her away! No results for 5 days they say. By then she could die. WTF?

Luckily she has a hyperbaric chamber and that infuses tons of oxygen into a person's blood. Seems like that's the only thing helping keep her alive. These dumb ass hospitals turning someone away who clearly has it.

She recently had surgery so that's why her body most likely couldn't fight it off so far. I hope the government gets those malaria drugs to hospitals ASAP.

It's not smart to turn someone away that had 99% chance of having it. WTF? Obviously the state isn't well prepared.

I have not been in personal contact with her or anyone in my family as they live 400 miles away. I hope they expedite these drugs or I'll fly around the world to go get it for her. Also, why send her home where it could spread?

Trevor Milton - CEO, Nikola Motor Company

[HeavyGunner]

That’s awful. I imagine she was sent home because the hospital had no room but that’s just speculation. Even if that’s the case it’s still a tragedy in the making. Hopefully she makes a speedy recovery without spreading this. I had to pick a truck up from getting worked on at our shop last week. Mind you we’ve had multiple emails giving us precautions and some rules to go by and one of them is if you’re sick stay home. I arrive at the shop and went to talk to the shop foreman who has access to the keys for the truck I was picking up and from clear across the shop I could clearly see he was sick. Looked pale, mouth agape and lumbering slowly across the shop. I hollered are you sick? He replied yes but I could hardly hear him because his voice was nearly gone and then he started coughing. I got mad and asked why are you here if you’re sick?!  He simply stated they’d think I’d have the corona virus if I called in sick. I asked if he has the corona virus and he said no. I said oh good then you’ve been tested. He said no. I asked him how in the hell does he know if he has it or not if he hasn’t been tested? He had no answer and I promptly told him what a selfish, self centered act that is to possibly spread something in a pandemic because you might have to use some sick days. The company already said if we come into contact with corona or have reasonable suspicion we have it (the latter requires a dr note) they will pay is for 30 days to stay at home to ensure it does not spread at work. A-holes like that mechanic are part of the reason it’s so hard to control a spread like this. I sincerely doubt he has Coronavirus since we are isolated from everywhere out here in BFE but why chance it?

[kscarbel2]

Ryder severs exclusive hydrogen electric truck partnership with Nikola

Jason Cannon, Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ)  /  May 31, 2020

Ryder System and Nikola Corporation announced Friday the termination of their more than three-year-long exclusive partnership on Nikola’s forthcoming hydrogen electric semis.

Ryder in late 2016 inked a deal to serve as the exclusive distribution and maintenance provider for Nikola Motor Company (NMC), which unlocked Ryder’s North American network of more than 800 service locations to lessors and owners of Nikola tractors.

That deal has been mutually called off, enabling both companies “to explore emerging opportunities within the rapidly growing commercial transportation industry,” Nikola said via release last week.

“As the market evolves, each of us are now free to expand our operations to other partners,” said Nikola Corporation CEO Trevor Milton, “something the previous agreement did not allow us to do. We look forward to finding ways to continue to work with Ryder in the future as a customer and have found them to be a great partner.”

Milton said his company will now be working with “major truck dealerships” to sell and service Nikola trucks.

Nikola this week expects to complete a merger with VectoIQ Acquisition Corp., a publicly-traded “special purpose acquisition company” [????], that once closed will see the hydrogen and battery electric truck maker listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker NKLA. Milton will serve as Executive Chairman of the combined company.

[kscarbel2]

Nikola emerges with $26 billion market value and no revenue

Automotive News  /  June 9, 2020

Tesla Inc. shares are at an all-time high. Hertz Global Holdings Inc.’s are well above where they were before the company went bankrupt. But no stock in the automotive sector is a better indication of equity-market exuberance than Nikola Corp.

The aspiring battery-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell truck maker debuted on the Nasdaq last week following a reverse merger with a blank-check company headed by a former General Motors executive and board director. It’s forecasting zero revenue for 2020 and its first $1 billion year won’t be until 2023.

Ford Motor Co., by comparison, is expected to report about $115 billion of revenue for this year. And yet Nikola, whose stock more than doubled Monday, traded up another 24 percent to as high as $90.71 in early trading Tuesday, giving the company a richer market capitalization than the almost 117-year-old maker of the F-150.

Skeptics have long questioned the market’s valuation of Tesla, which has yet to post an annual profit. But by pushing Nikola’s market cap to $26 billion at Monday’s close, investors have taken appraisals of zero-emission vehicle manufacturers named after a celebrated Serbian-American inventor to another stratosphere.

“Nikola’s No. 1 goal is stable growth over time,” Trevor Milton, Nikola’s executive chairman, said in an emailed statement. The 38-year-old said several factors could be behind the stock’s gain and cited examples including his tweeted announcement that the company will start taking reservations for its Badger pickup.

Starting five years ago, when Milton founded Nikola, through the end of last year, the Phoenix-based company has lost about $188.5 million. It’s planning to start delivering the Tre battery-electric semi truck next year, followed by two fuel cell-electric models in 2023.

The Badger model that Milton said may have gotten the market excited on Monday might not actually make it into production. In Nikola’s public-offering filing, the company said it is focused on making Class 8 heavy-duty vehicles and doesn’t expect to build the Badger unless it finds an established manufacturer to partner with.

A spokesperson for the company said Nikola will announce a partner in the near future, without giving more specifics.

Last week, Milton ceded the CEO job to Mark Russell, a former COO of metals manufacturer Worthington Industries Inc., who has been president of Nikola since February 2019. VectoIQ Acquisition Corp., the company Nikola merged with, is led by Steve Girsky, a former GM vice chairman who helped lead the carmaker out of bankruptcy.

Little cash

Nikola had about $86 million in cash at the end of last year. Prior to the stock listing, it had raised more than $500 million of private capital, though that includes a $150 million in-kind contribution from CNH Industrial NV, the truck maker linked to Italy’s billionaire Agnelli family. CNH also invested $100 million cash in Nikola last year.

The partnership with CNH includes a 50-50 venture in Europe that aims to start producing battery-electric trucks in Germany in the first half of next year and a North American alliance that Nikola will fully own.

Nikola is planning to build a 1-million-square-foot facility south of Phoenix and start making trucks in 2021. It’s expecting to reach full production of about 30,000 fuel cell-electric vehicles in 2027 and 15,000 battery-electric vehicles the following year.

Although Nikola touts reservations for 14,000 fuel cell-electric trucks that it says are worth about $10 billion of sales, those are far from done deals. The company told prospective investors in April that it was negotiating with strategic fleet partners to convert pre-orders into binding contracts with deposits.

While times are good for Milton -- his fortune now stands at $9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index -- he still covets something Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has: a blue check mark on Twitter.

Hi @verified @twitter, how about verifying my account and our company's account so people stop asking if we are the real accounts of Nikola. I've waiting patiently for a year and no verification. Help a company out. @nikolatrevor and @nikolamotor

— Trevor Milton (@nikolatrevor) June 6, 2020

Then again, Milton may want to be careful about seeking notoriety on Musk’s favorite social-media platform. The account @TESLACharts, which has accumulated roughly 26,400 followers by incessantly trolling Musk, has taken notice of Nikola’s rise.

Nikola, which has **zero revenue**, now has a market cap greater than $30B. But the Fed has nothing to do with this asset bubble mania. Amazing times. No position. $NKLA pic.twitter.com/0S6yOsfHn7

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[kscarbel2]

Nikola, Maker of Upcoming Badger Pickup, Angry at Bloomberg for Critical Article on Its Semi

Car & Driver  /  June 18, 2020

Bloomberg reported that Nikola showed a non-running prototype of its one semi-truck that was missing essential parts in 2016 and claimed it was functional.

There was a time when a startup founder could get on stage, make a claim, and the assembled audience would nod their heads in agreement mumbling disruption, innovation, and whatever other buzzword was in vogue at the time. Then medical-technology startup Theranos swindled investors, companies, and even government officials with technology that never worked, and positive reactions without any sort of proof somewhat dwindled. The blowback was that the world is much more critical of newcomers to the market. And that's an important change, especially for companies, like automakers, that deal with the lives of customers.

To that end, this week Bloomberg posted a critical article about hydrogen fuel-cell truck and long-haul semi-truck company Nikola. According to Bloomberg sources, the Nikola One semi that was unveiled at an event way back in December 2016 wasn't as drivable as CEO Trevor Milton implied. The article stated that people familiar with the vehicle and its status at the event were "alarmed" by suggestions that the truck being shown was drivable and noted that there weren't even any fuel cells in the semi at the event.

CEO Milton took to Twitter to blast the Bloomberg report, stating that neither the reporter, Ed Ludlow, or any other Bloomberg reporter would be allowed in a Nikola building or event.

Later in the day, Milton shared a letter that Nikola's chief legal officer, Britton Worthen, was sending Bloomberg and reporter Ed Ludlow. The document says that the statements in the Bloomberg article are "inaccurate, misleading, taken out of context, and hide behind alleged inside sources" and theatened legal action against both the reporter and Bloomberg.

We watched the event that took place on December 1, 2016, that was referenced in the Bloomberg piece. At one point Milton says, "We will have a chain on the seats to prevent people from coming in, just for the safety I don't want someone to end up doing something and driving this truck off the stage. So, it's a little expensive. You could probably buy a jet with that cost to build this thing. So we're gonna try to keep people from driving off but this thing fully functions and works which is really incredible."

He later states that the chain will keep people from hitting the controls "because they do work." Milton also said to the assembled audience that were about to tour the vehicle that "You’re going to see that this is a real truck, not a pusher." A pusher is a show vehicle that doesn’t have the capability to run and needs to be pushed on stage.

When interviewed by Bloomberg ahead of the publication of the article, Milton said, "I never deceived anyone."

[kscarbel2]

Today's new generation of CEOs that routinely lie get upset when you point it out.

[Maxidyne]

Sad that the media is getting so bullied by the manufacturers, getting hard to trust road tests and reviews.

[kscarbel2]

Nikola Plummets After Warrant Call Creates Selling Pressure

Bloomberg  /  July 20, 2020

Nikola Corp. shares nosedived on Monday. Some investors will now be able to buy the company’s stock at a fraction of recent prices.

The electric-vehicle company late Friday said a sale of shares related to certain warrants was declared effective, which means the warrant holders will now be able to acquire one share of Nikola at $11.50 -- a 76% discount to Friday’s close of $48.84.

Apart from those nearly 24 million shares that are now exercisable through warrants, the filing also registered as many as 53.4 million shares held by private investors, such as mutual funds and other large institutions.

“We believe the potential for a portion of these 77 million shares to hit the market through early investors selling, could create large technical selling pressure on Nikola stock,” Deutsche Bank said Monday.

Nikola shares dropped as much as 22% to $38 in New York trading, after gaining 373% this year through Friday.

[RoadwayR]

Sounds like Elvis left the building.

[mrsmackpaul]

I wonder about all of these clean green companies that are building cars and trucks and the like to save us all

If you spend some time on Google do some basic research into them 

They all appear to be run by young smooth talking hipsters that dont have any real world experience, it reminds me so much of the 80's 

Don't get me wrong, I  think we need to clean up our act and clean and green is the way to go and the way forward but these hipsters who aren't even spending their own hard earned cash can do a huge amount of damage and cost our economies and us billions 

They need to be kept a close eye on as they are so reckless with money

Or maybe Im just a tight and dont like taking needless risk

 

Paul

[kscarbel2]

Nikola Founder Exaggerated the Capability of His Debut Truck

Edward Ludlow, Bloomberg  /  July 17, 2020

After half an hour of promotional videos and big promises, Nikola Corp.’s 13-foot-tall prototype parked atop a rotating stage began to spin.

The dramatic music reached a crescendo, lights flicked on and a partially translucent white sheet lifted off the Nikola One. Founder Trevor Milton walked up to applause, put his hands on his side and admired the big rig.

“Oh, that thing is so awesome,” he said. “We’ve been waiting so long to show this to the world, you have no idea. It’s hard to even contain my emotion about this.”

Milton then made several comments to the crowd at the December 2016 event suggesting the Nikola One was driveable. The statements alarmed people familiar with the truck’s capability, who told Bloomberg News recently that it was inoperable and missing key components to power itself.

On Wednesday, Milton said key parts were [in fact] taken out of the vehicle for safety reasons and that it never drove under its own power.

“I never deceived anyone,” he said in a phone interview. Nikola shares briefly erased gains and traded down as much as 2.4% as of 3:33 p.m. Thursday in New York. The company still has a more than $22 billion market capitalization.

At the event 3 1/2 years ago, Milton said the company had put up a chain to keep people from bumping into any of the vehicle controls. “We’re going to try to keep people from driving off,” he said. “This thing fully functions and works.”

Later, he said the truck was not a “pusher,” referring to an inoperable prototype that needed to be nudged onto the stage.

The people familiar with the truck, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive information, said they were concerned about the statements. Gears and motors were missing, and while the words “H2 Zero Emission Hydrogen Electric” were emblazoned on the vehicle, there was no fuel cell on board.

“There wasn’t a fuel cell in the truck. We never claimed there was,” Milton said. He confirmed the motors and gears weren’t in the vehicle for safety reasons.

Milton’s statements are coming under greater scrutiny following Phoenix-based Nikola’s share listing earlier this month. The stock’s initial surge has turned small investments by manufacturers such as CNH Industrial NV and Jeff Ubben’s ValueAct Capital Management into stakes worth billions. The gains reflect optimism that Nikola could become a Tesla Inc.-like disruptor, though established truck companies are planning their own greener alternatives to diesel-powered big rigs.

“Manufacturing trucks is a highly competitive business, and all the established players -- Daimler, Volvo, Scania and others -- all have low- and zero-emissions programs under development,” said Colin McKerracher, head of advanced transport for researcher BloombergNEF. “This is going to be a crowded field.”

It’s taking longer for Nikola to enter the field than Milton hoped. He said at the time of the unveiling of the One that deliveries would start in 2020. Nikola is now less committal about a delivery date 3 1/2 years later. The company is forecasting no revenue for this year.

Production plans for the One will be announced once Nikola has established a “robust” refueling infrastructure, the company said in its March public-offering filing. Its initial hydrogen stations won’t be operational until 2022 or later.

Nikola is outsourcing much of the work for its debut model, a battery-electric big rig called the Tre, which is based off a truck built by CNH Industrial. Sales are expected to begin next year. Its first fuel-cell truck, the Nikola Two, is due in 2023.

Despite its challenges with starting production, investors briefly valued Nikola higher than Ford Motor Co. earlier this month. Its shares were listed following a reverse merger with a blank-check company and promptly soared in the midst of retail-investor fervor for insolvent companies.

Unlike Elon

At first glance, Milton seems like a clone of Elon Musk, whose better-known company goes by the other half of the name of famed electrical inventor Nikola Tesla. Both charismatic and outspoken leaders have profited from dramatic run-ups in their companies’ share prices this year. But in some respects, the two executives’ businesses are quite different.

Whereas Musk, 48, is notorious for setting stretch goals that Tesla fails to achieve or does so later than its chief executive officer hoped, Nikola’s targets for the coming years are relatively conservative.

The company expects to have its first $1 billion year of revenue in 2023. The truck factory it plans to build south of Phoenix is projected to reach full production of about 30,000 fuel-cell electric vehicles in 2027 and 15,000 battery-electric vehicles the following year.

Tesla by comparison expects its deliveries to “comfortably” exceed 500,000 vehicles this year. Its total revenue topped $24.5 billion in 2019.

Matching Musk

In other respects, Milton is following in Musk’s footsteps.

Nikola has succeeded in ginning up consumer and investor interest in a product years before it’s ready to be delivered, much like Tesla’s CEO has done with several products.

Tesla also has raised money off customers by charging deposits for vehicles that take years to get to market. Nikola took the same approach with the One, though Milton says the company returned deposits to reservation holders because of criticism Tesla fielded over its funding strategy. He is now planning to take deposits for a truck model the company has in development.

Nikola touts the 14,000 reservations it has for its future fuel-cell electric trucks and says they are worth about $10 billion of sales, but that value is theoretical. The company told prospective investors in April that it was negotiating with fleet partners to convert pre-orders into binding contracts with deposits.

Musk also has hosted an unveiling with a product that didn’t actually work. In October 2016, he staged a solar roof product demo with shingles that weren’t functional to help clinch shareholder approval for Tesla’s $2 billion acquisition of SolarCity.

In January, Tesla’s insurer paid out $60 million to settle investor claims that directors allowed Musk to dupe the electric-car company into overpaying for SolarCity. Musk is the only member of Tesla’s board who didn’t settle.

‘Best Decision’

Milton’s path to billionaire status was an unusual one. Before founding Nikola six years ago, he flunked out of high school, then passed the General Educational Development test, according to a Twitter post. He later dropped out of college.

A self-described serial entrepreneur, he founded alarm-system and online-retail startups and ran a natural gas storage-technology company before Nikola.

With the Nikola One, Milton says he called an audible before the 2016 unveiling. The company had initially tried to build trucks powered by natural gas-powered turbines. Fuel cells and batteries “were not far enough along” to build zero-emission trucks, he said in an interview last week. He went to the board anyway and called for Nikola to make the switch.

“They were like ‘no way, you’ve already got millions of dollars into this turbine, the truck is ready to go, what are you thinking, man?’” Milton said of the board’s response. “I just put my foot down and said you’ve got to trust me and we are doing it. It’s a damn good thing I did it. It’s the best decision we ever did.”

BloombergNEF is less bullish, predicting that global Class 8 heavy-duty fuel cell truck sales won’t reach 10,000 units annually until around 2030. The researcher sees 90% of heavy trucks continuing to be powered by diesel in 2040.

“Fuel cell technology has improved, but there’s still a long way to go on the economics to be fully cost competitive with other options,” McKerracher said in an email. “Scaling up quickly would require a huge push on policy support.”

[kscarbel2]

Milton did literally deceive everyone. This whole smoke and mirrors show is an advanced science experiment.

[kscarbel2]

Nikola stock plummeted another 13 percent today to $29. At this point, they don't have the necessary investment to go forward.

[CaptainCrutch]

I’d like to see Rivian take over this project. This truck is a good idea, it just seems to be led by someone whose bark is bigger than their bite. Rivian has not disappointed, and on a similar note, neither has Tesla. I can think of one example of Tesla setting a goal they haven’t achieved, just many times of being behind schedule in reaching those goals. The one thing they didn’t accomplish was battery swap stations being common as a way of charging your vehicle faster, and they did have a prototype they abandoned, and probably for good reason seeing as their next semi will be able to go 500 miles fully loaded on a 30 minute charge, real stats they’re actually achieving on their 2 prototypes, with production starting soon. I really don’t understand why the media doesn’t cover this stuff more! Oh wait, yes I do, I think I remember something about companies like Boeing and Nikola paying people to write bad news about SpaceX and Tesla, one claiming the rocket is unsafe for humans to fly on, and the other claiming Tesla stoke their design when as its turning out may be the other way around...

[kscarbel2]

Nikola Falls After Loss

Edward Ludlow, Bloomberg  /  August 4, 2020

Nikoa Corp.’s shares fell Tuesday after hours on the company’s debut earnings release.

The would-be maker of battery-electric and fuel cell heavy trucks reported a net loss for the second quarter of $86.64 million (up from $16.7 million a year earlier) as it moves toward production of its vehicles.

Nikola claims it will begin fleet testing of the BEV version of its semi truck -- the Nikola Tre -- with select customers in 2021. The hydrogen fuel cell vehicles will be built in Arizona from 2023, at a site which is under construction.

The company ended the quarter with around $707 million cash on hand. It also hopes to raise an additional $264.5 million in cash through the exercise of the 23 million outstanding public warrants at an exercise price of $11.50.

Nikola generated revenue of just $36,000 (you read that correctly: thirty-six thousand) from solar installations, but the release states these aren’t tied to the company’s core operations and are expected to be discontinued.

[kscarbel2]

Nikola gets 2,500 unit electric garbage truck order

MarketWatch  /  August 10, 2020

Shares of Nikola shot up 14% in premarket trading Monday, after the electric truck maker secured an order to maker at least 2,500 electric garbage trucks for Republic Services for an undisclosed amount.

Nikola said it expects to begin testing the trucks in early 2022, with full production deliveries in 2023.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the battery-powered trucks Nikola will make can travel 150 miles on a charge.

Although the price of the trucks in the Republic Services order isn't disclosed, Founder Trevor Milton told the WSJ that the company is committed to a price tag under $500,000 per vehicle, which is the going rate for electric garbage trucks currently sold by Nikola's competitors.

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[kscarbel2]

This development begs the question of what happened to the Wright Speed-powered Volvo-Mack LR refuse project?  Did Volvo decide to ignore it and run with their in-house tech? Ian Wright is sharp.

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/45567-waste-concept-mack-tests-out-wrightspeed-electric-powertrain/

 

[kt_Engineer]

2 hours ago, kscarbel2 said:

This development begs the question of what happened to the Wright Speed-powered Volvo-Mack LR refuse project?  Did Volvo decide to ignore it and run with their in-house tech? Ian Wright is sharp.

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/45567-waste-concept-mack-tests-out-wrightspeed-electric-powertrain/

 

https://www.macktrucks.com/mack-news/2020/mack-trucks-demonstrates-mack-lr-electric-model-for-new-york-city-department-of-sanitation/

https://www.waste360.com/trucks/behind-wheel-look-macks-lr-electric-truck-dsny

Volvo is also partnering on LIGHTS (Low Impact Green Heavy Transportation Solutions) California initiative for Drayage and other applications

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/06/20200619-volvo.html

https://www.volvotrucks.us/news-and-stories/press-releases/2020/february/all-electric-vnr-models/

 

[kscarbel2]

17 minutes ago, kt_Engineer said:

https://www.macktrucks.com/mack-news/2020/mack-trucks-demonstrates-mack-lr-electric-model-for-new-york-city-department-of-sanitation/

https://www.waste360.com/trucks/behind-wheel-look-macks-lr-electric-truck-dsny

Volvo is also partnering on LIGHTS (Low Impact Green Heavy Transportation Solutions) California initiative for Drayage and other applications

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/06/20200619-volvo.html

https://www.volvotrucks.us/news-and-stories/press-releases/2020/february/all-electric-vnr-models/

 

The electric LIGHTS trucks are Volvo tech from Europe.

The DSNY trucks use Volvo tech, not Wright Speed tech which features a micro-turbine range extender.

[kscarbel2]

Short seller Hindenburg alleges that electric truck maker Nikola is an 'intricate fraud' in new report

MarketWatch  /  September 10, 2020

Short seller Hindenburg Research published a report on electric truck maker Nikola Inc. on Thursday, accusing it of being an "intricate fraud" built on lies told by its Founder and Executive Chairman Trevor Milton over many years. Nikola shares fell 9% on the news.

"We have gathered extensive evidence-including recorded phone calls, text messages, private emails and behind-the-scenes photographs-detailing dozens of false statements by Nikola Founder Trevor Milton," said the report. "We have never seen this level of deception at a public company, especially of this size." Nikola has misled partners by making false claims about the company's technology, including its hydrogen fuel cell batteries, which Hindenburg says never existed.

The company is now planning to use General Motors Co. battery technology after signing a deal with GM this week, under which it will issue $2 billion of new shares to GM.

[kscarbel2]

Bloomberg  /  September 11, 2020

Nikola Corp. shares dropped as much as 18% after the company issued a blanket denial of allegations made in a short-seller report without offering any specifics to refute allegations it lied about its technology and staged events.

The electric-truck startup said allegations made by Hindenburg Research are false but did not provide evidence to refute specific claims in the report. Chairman and founder Trevor Milton had vowed earlier Friday to issue a detailed rebuttal after “working through the night.”

Nikola instead hired law firm Kirkland & Ellis to consider its legal options and said it plans to bring unspecified documentation to the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Milton said in a tweet Friday he wouldn’t make any further comments about the allegations on the advice of counsel. In reference to earlier pledges to provide a “detail report” to address Hindenburg’s claims, he hinted in another tweet that might take time.

“This document had to be prepared well with the SEC in mind. It will be released as soon as they give me the green light,” he said.

Although Milton didn’t explain from whom he was awaiting a “green light.”

Hidenburg Research’s founder, Nathan Anderson, said he welcomed Nikola’s pledge to petition securities regulators. “We are pleased that Nikola is engaging with the SEC and we are not surprised that Trevor Milton is not commenting further on advice of counsel,” he said.

[kscarbel2]

Nikola’s History of Discrepancies Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight

Edward Ludlow, Bloomberg  /  September 12, 2020

Nikola Corp. has left a trail of inconsistent statements and contradictory announcements that are now coming under scrutiny from short sellers eager to poke holes in the electric-vehicle company’s success story.

Hindenburg Research, which holds a short position in Nikola stock and stands to gain if the shares fall, released a report Thursday detailing what it called “dozens of lies” about the company’s capabilities, partnerships or products. The firm used internal emails, analyzed photos and even cited an investigator dispatched to rural Utah to test how far a car would roll down a hill. Nikola said Hindenburg’s report was full of falsehoods but hasn’t offered anything specific to rebut the allegations.

It doesn’t take a hedge fund or a private eye to determine that Nikola, which struck a partnership this week with General Motors Co., has a pattern of discrepancies. A look at some of its announcements and filings, along with statements and tweets by Executive Chairman Trevor Milton and other management over the past few years, yields other examples that weren’t part of Hindenburg’s report. “It’s a bit confusing trying to follow Trevor on his various social media outlets about the timing and cadence of communication of the different variables that you’re talking about,” Jeff Osborne, a Cowen & Co. analyst, told executives on an Aug. 4 conference call.

Nikola’s shares have tumbled 24% since the Hindenburg report, which, among other sources, cited a Bloomberg story from June about the company exaggerating the capabilities of a truck. Its slump over the last three sessions was 36%.

“We are committed to doing our best to keep the investing public and all of our stakeholders informed and up to date at all times,” Chief Executive Officer Mark Russell said Friday in an emailed response to questions from Bloomberg about the following items.

Under Construction

At a press event on July 22, ahead of the groundbreaking of Nikola’s Coolidge, Arizona, factory, Head of Global Manufacturing Mark Duchesne fielded a question on when construction would get underway. “That one is an easy answer,” he said. “Start of construction is tomorrow.”

The timeline was repeated by Milton the following day in a tweet. But “construction” turns out to be a broad term.

To facilitate the groundbreaking ceremony, the city of Coolidge issued Nikola a temporary use permit on July 13. The document, obtained by Bloomberg, allowed the company to do some limited ground clearing and preparation for holding the event, along with listing a plan for coronavirus safeguards. It didn’t allow further construction to start beyond that. The company also obtained a Pinal County dust permit around the same time, a legal requirement in Arizona.

On Aug. 7, the company received its at-risk grading and drainage permit, City Manager Rick Miller said by phone. The permit allows Nikola to clear dirt and do drainage work on the site, but as yet the company doesn’t have the permits required for foundation work, plumbing, electrical or vertical construction, Miller said. The permits are available through public-records requests.

On Wednesday, Nikola said in a tweet that Coolidge’s city council had approved the company’s “factory masterplan” and that “construction can now go forward.” This is only partly true, Miller said. It was the planning and zoning commission that approved a “major site plan.” The approval will allow Nikola and its architects and engineers to apply for the next batch of permits.

In a statement, Nikola said that by “construction” it meant everything from groundbreaking to seeking permits. Now that its building plan is approved, “the various permits will be obtained in cadence with the steps of the construction. We remain on schedule for Phase 1,” the company said in an email.

“The factory will be up in 12 months,” Milton said in a live broadcast on Instagram on Friday night. “The permit was just issued by the city. We are all good to go.”

Puzzling Partnership

Nikola has a stated ambition of manufacturing hydrogen-powered fuel cell semi trucks by 2023. Since 2017, it has had an agreement for German auto-parts supplier Robert Bosch Gmbh to “develop, build, test and support” various components for Nikola’s prototypes including a fuel-cell system, battery packs, steering pumps and motors, according to a regulatory filing in March.

The details of which partner is contributing what to the project has shifted over time, and the future of the deal has gotten hazier.

Nikola agreed to pay Bosch around $40 million for the development, according to the filing. In a presentation to investors in April, Nikola described the agreement with Bosch as a “co-development” and strategic supply chain partnership and said the company would jointly own any intellectual property developed with Bosch.

However, Nikola executives have regularly stated that Nikola designed, developed and will provide much of the technology for its vehicles -- not Bosch. On Friday, Chief Financial Officer Kim Brady said that Nikola will provide only 15% of the parts in battery electric pickups due to be built in Ulm, Germany, while partner Iveco provides the rest. However, he added that Nikola’s input represents 90% of the truck’s value.

“We are responsible for Nikola Tre -- the batteries, e-axle, e-motors, inverters, BMS system, infotainment system,” Brady said. “All the key electric propulsion systems come from Nikola.”

As recently as Aug. 25, Bosch has said that it’s “working with the company to make the fuel-cell drive for trucks suitable for mass production.”

On Monday, Nikola announced that GM -- not Bosch -- will mass-supply a fuel cell system for Nikola’s Class 7 and 8 semi trucks, as well as the battery packs for its debut electric pickup, the Badger. On Friday, Nikola clarified that Bosch will supply semi truck fuel cells in Europe, while GM will have exclusivity everywhere else.

“Bosch is an investor, board member and supplier to Nikola. They help us in many facets of our business as our partner,” Nikola said.

Milton bristled at a claim by a Twitter user that Nikola was jilting Bosch in favor of GM.

“Bosch as a company with a dedicated hydrogen strategy welcomes the decision of GM to enter this market as an important player,” Bosch spokesman Tim Wieland said in an email. “Beyond that, Nikola and Bosch have been working together for several years, not only on the fuel cell power train but also on other innovations like the steering system and the Mirror Cam System for the first prototypes of the Nikola trucks. The two companies will continue to cooperate in the future, also on fuel cells.”

Game Changer

Nikola’s narrative about its battery strategy has also shifted over time.

In November 2019, Nikola issued a press release claiming to have “game-changing” battery cell technology that it would unveil at an event in 2020. Nikola also said it had entered into a letter of intent to acquire a “world-class battery engineering team” to help bring the new battery to pre-production.

“We are talking about doubling the range of BEVs and hydrogen-electric vehicles around the world,” Milton said in the statement.

In July, Milton tweeted that Nikola would “make the entire pack like the top guys do” for its upcoming pickup truck, called the Badger. He said that all internal components, such as batteries, inverters, software and controls, are Nikola’s own intellectual property. “We own it all in house,” he said.

Milton clarified in a tweet on Thursday that Nikola’s change of direction -- to use GM’s Ultium battery technology for the Badger -- was a result of cost analysis and cost savings.

Beer Trucks

Back in March, Nikola said in a presentation to investors that it has a “signed binding agreement” to provide Anheuser-Busch with as many as 800 hydrogen fuel cell electric semi trucks. What the presentation didn’t say was that Anheuser-Busch committed to buy fewer trucks than that, and doesn’t have to buy any at all.

The deal was first announced in May 2018 and stated the trucks were originally expected to be integrated into Anheuser-Busch’s dedicated fleet by the end of 2020, according to a press release.

That timeline isn’t going to be met. During the Aug. 4 earnings call, Russell, the CEO, updated investors on the deal, saying, “We do believe that we’ll be able to give them test prototypes before the end of 2021; serial production or mass production of the fuel cell truck will not begin until 2023.”

That does corroborate with the timeline for production set out in a July filing -- and to be fair, lots of people’s plans have changed this year. But in the same filing, Nikola revealed that Anheuser-Busch retains the right to cancel the truck order, though there’s no indication that will happen. The contract also has lease terms and rental rates that may be hard for Nikola to meet, according to the filing, “depending on our ability to develop our trucks and hydrogen network according to current design parameters and cost estimates.”

The agreement between the two companies states that Anheuser-Busch gets priority of delivery for as much as 20% of Nikola’s initial “production line of Class 8 vehicles.” To get production going by 2023, Nikola must work to have dedicated equipment in Anheuser Busch’s breweries and distribution centers by the end of 2021, according to the deal terms. Anheuser-Busch only agreed to use at least 600 trucks -- the 800 figure, according to the document, is an estimate of what the brewer will need.

“They have been, and continue to be, a great long-term partner in our shared vision of a zero-emission future (a Nikola Two prototype hauled our first load over public roads for them in St. Louis not too long ago),” Russell said in the statement Friday, referring to Anheuser-Busch. “Our original agreement with them has been modified over time. The current agreement terms are as we set forth in our earnings call.”

Anheuser-Busch didn’t respond to a request for comment. The partnership with Nikola will help the brewer transition its entire long-haul fleet to zero-emission vehicles, Anheuser-Busch said last November.

Prototype Production

On July 13, Milton said European partner Iveco was already producing vehicle prototypes.

“We have a truck coming in to production right now with 720KwH, the largest battery we know of anywhere in the world coming in to production,” Milton said on the TC’s Chartcast Podcast. “We have five of them coming off the assembly line right now in Ulm, Germany.”

On Aug. 4, during the company’s debut earnings call, Russell echoed the sentiment, saying that the first five prototypes were “coming off the end of the facility at this point.”

Those statements were a mischaracterization of Nikola and Iveco’s progress in Ulm, according to two people familiar with the matter. The assembly line is still under construction and not yet operational or building prototypes, the people said. There are prototypes being built by hand in a workshop, one of the people said.

“As stated previously, the first five production prototypes of the Nikola Tre are being completed, by an assembly team at the Ulm facility. Also as stated previously, the Nikola/IVECO JV mass production line facility in Ulm is still under construction, and is on track for the start of regular serial production in 2021,” Russell said Friday. “We anticipate that a number of current IVECO personnel will join the Nikola/IVECO JV production team in Ulm.”

Nikola’s Guidance

Here’s when Nikola has said it will hit its big milestones, based on filings, statements and interviews:

Goal	Timeline
Battery-electric Tre semi truck manufacturing in Ulm with Iveco	2021
Production of battery-electric semi trucks for North America in Coolidge	mid-2022 (could move up to 2021)
Production of Nikola Badger with GM	end of 2022
Production of semi trucks in Coolidge, using GM fuel cells

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Nikola/Hindenberg: gravitational spin

Jamie Powell, Financial Times  /  September 16, 2020

In a year of remarkable market stories, one of the most remarkable emerged last Thursday when short selling research firm Hindenberg took aim at $13bn electric vehicle bubble stock, and recent GM partner, Nikola.

Nikola’s shares plummeted, prompting the company’s paper-billionaire founder and private jet enthusiast Trevor Milton to promise a full rebuttal of Hindenberg’s allegations before market open Friday. It never came.

Instead we got a short statement from Nikola that it refutes the allegations, and had retained Kirkland & Ellis as its legal rottweiler against the evil shorty.

That changed Monday morning as Nikola, a day late and several billion bucks short, published its full response.

Now arguably the most amusing allegation in the Hindenberg report was that the born-of-Spac Tesla-knock-off faked a promotional video back in 2018. The clip showed one of Nikola’s trucks powering through the Utah countryside, seemingly propelled by its next-generation electric vehicle technology.

In fact, as the FT confirmed, the truck was simply rolling down a very gentle hill. Newton would have been a better name for the company than Nikola, it seems.

So we were keen to see how Nikola would spin this revelation in its response, and we weren’t disappointed (emphasis ours):

Short Seller Distorts Nikola One 2017 Third Party “Future of Transportation” Promotion Video and Creates a Popular Lie: Hindenburg seeks to portray Nikola as misrepresenting the capabilities of the Nikola One prototype in a 2017 video produced by a third party, as “simply filmed rolling down a big hill.” Nikola never stated its truck was driving under its own propulsion in the video, although the truck was designed to do just that (as described in previous point). The truck was showcased and filmed by a third party for a commercial. Nikola described this third-party video on the Company’s social media as “In Motion.” It was never described as “under its own propulsion” or “powertrain driven.” Nikola investors who invested during this period, in which the Company was privately held, knew the technical capability of the Nikola One at the time of their investment. This three-year-old video of a Nikola prototype is irrelevant except for the fact that the short seller is trying to use it for its main thesis. The fact is, Nikola has real working hydrogen fuel-cell powered semi-trucks. Any reports intended to suggest that Nikola’s trucks do not drive are erroneous, and recent videos of Nikola vehicles driving can be found here.

Gravitational forces, it seems, are also beginning to exert themselves on the stock. At pixel, Nikola’s shares are off 7.2 per cent in pre-market trading to $29.81, after jumping to reach the low $50s on the back of the General Motors announcement last Tuesday.

What a difference a week makes eh?

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Nikola's truck was not powering through the Utah countryside, propelled by its next-generation electric vehicle technology. In fact, the unpowered truck was pushed down a hill.

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