Nikola has decided to postpone the glitzy debut event it had planned for its Badger pickup truck amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the company and founder Trevor Milton.
Nikola Badger
The automaker had previously scheduled the debut event, which it had affectionately dubbed ‘Nikola World’, for early December. The three-day event was set to feature a glitzy kick-off party and live music before the company presented the Nikola Badger pickup truck, along with a number of other unspecified electric recreational vehicles and a “few other surprises.”
Nikola blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for the event’s postponement, however, it seems likely the recent controversies surrounding the company also had an impact on the decision.
“Due to COVID-19 audience size restrictions at Arizona’s major venues, we have made the decision to reschedule an in-person Nikola World until we can bring the Nikola community together safely,” the company said in a statement released to The Detroit News. “We will continue to provide progress updates across our entire product portfolio.”
Nikola Badger interior
General Motors announced a new partnership with Nikola in September. Under the agreement, GM would give Nikola access to its electric and hydrogen vehicle tech and build and engineer the Badger in exchange for an 11% stake in the company. Shortly after, a noted short-seller published a report accusing Nikola of being an intricate fraud and misleading and lying to investors. Company founder Trevor Milton then stepped down from the company and has since had two formal sexual assault complaints filed against him.
The previous deadline for closing the deal was September 30th, however GM has now said that its discussions with Nikola remain ongoing. It’s not clear if GM will go forth with the deal under the same terms or new terms, or if it will back out of the deal. The agreement included a line that indicated either company could back out if it was not closed by December 3rd.
Nikola Tre
For now, Nikola is charging ahead with its more immediate plans and hopes to have the first prototype examples of its Nikola Tre European semi-truck rolling off a production line in Germany before the end of the month.
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Comments
Is this even real? Looks like a Raptor…
Aren’t these the same pictures they’ve been showing off for months now?
Also no, of course it’s not real. Unless you have an extremely liberal interpretation of what is real.
Supposedly there is a mule out that they are testing and you have to imagine they were planning to reveal something in December…Buy a Raptor, remove the drivetrain, use off the shelf batteries, EV motors and bold fiberglass body panels…Speculation is that it is a Raptor which has some of the best off road specs for a stock pickup that they doctored…The renderings above match the Raptor/F150 proportions so they probably took existing Raptor images and doctored them…
The Badger is DOA. GM doesn’t need or want this, and assuming they gain more control in Nikola, they won’t want this thing around with the Hummer EV and Silverado EV already on the market.
If they didn’t want the Nikola hype or this truck, why would they want even more control of the company?
Class 7/8 Semi. Hydrogen-electric is the best zero-emissions alternative to diesel semis by far, and its not even close. You’re looking at a future gold mine, Nate.
Nikola has three semi versions, Nikola One which didn’t even run, Nikola Two which is pitched as a Fuel Cell but many speculate is battery powered only and the Nikola Tre which is a pure EV…Nikola may have zero operational IP or anything that operates on hydrogen…
Per wiki, the cleanest scalable way to make hydrogen is from solar electricity, yet it takes 50-55 kWh to make 1kg of Hydrogen…Tesla claims fully loaded their semi uses less than 2 kWh per mile, Nikola has not announced their consumption rate…Furthermore, in the semi world, plenty of semi’s aren’t “long haulers” going from distribution centers to retailers…Could replace those with EVs first as EV tech improves…
None of that really matters though. GM has the ability to build fuel cell semis if that’s what they want to do.
Right. Which is why they want the Nikola name for those semis…I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to turn Nikola into some kind of hydrogen-electric commercial vehicle brand. The name has big equity in that department.
Couldn’t they just do an online CGI presentation?
I mean everything else that Nikola has promised is always CGI anyways Haha
They revealed the images and announced the event during the Covid…If what many are speculating is true, what they were planning to reveal was based on an existing ICE pickup trucks chassis, perhaps they didn’t want to get exposed again and are working to find a company who will build them a custom one off prototype from the ground up…
Since the deal was based on stock evaluation which dropped 50% since the deal was announced, control and/or more stock is a valid request…They seemed okay with the fraud report and Trevor resigning, yet his sexual harassment claims, DoJ and SEC issues have caused them to pause…
What a complete Fraud of a Company man.
There is a ton of investors that are desperately trying to keep the Stock price at $20 as much as they can because they cannot sell off until December.
Milton almost pulled of the heist of a lifetime.