Struggling electrical truck firm Nikola mentioned it was submitting for Chapter 11 chapter safety on Wednesday and would unload its property, successfully ending a difficult journey punctuated by fast money burn, allegations of fraud, and the incarceration of its first CEO and founder.
Nikola mentioned it might search an public sale and sale course of, pending court docket approval. The corporate mentioned it had $47 million in money available to fund its chapter proceedings, implement the sale course of, and exit Chapter 11. Nikola listed property of between $500 million and $1 billion, and estimated its liabilities have been between $1 billion and $10 billion, Reuters said citing a court filing.
“Like different corporations within the electrical automobile business, we have now confronted numerous market and macroeconomic elements which have impacted our capacity to function,” Steve Girsky, President and CEO of Nikola, said in a statement. “In latest months, we have now taken quite a few actions to lift capital, cut back our liabilities, clear up our steadiness sheet and protect money to maintain our operations. Sadly, our best possible efforts haven’t been sufficient to beat these vital challenges, and the Board has decided that Chapter 11 represents the very best path ahead below the circumstances for the Firm and its stakeholders.”
“Like different corporations within the electrical automobile business, we have now confronted numerous market and macroeconomic elements which have impacted our capacity to function.”
The submitting represents a fall from grace for the as soon as buzzy firm that aimed to remodel the polluting heavy-truck business into one based mostly on zero emissions. Based in 2015, Nikola pitched the thought of zero-emission huge rigs utilizing hydrogen gasoline cell know-how, and later mentioned it might embrace battery-electric vans as nicely. The corporate scored an enormous win in 2020 when Basic Motors introduced plans to would assist Nikola engineer and manufacture its battery-electric and hydrogen gasoline cell autos, together with the Badger pickup truck. In trade, GM would acquire an 11 percent equity stake within the startup.
However lower than per week later, short-selling agency Hindenburg Analysis published a bombshell report accusing Nikola of fraud, together with the video displaying the truck rolling down a hill to simulate driving. The report set off a sequence response that resulted in founder Trevor Milton’s stepping down as board chair and CEO and his eventual arrest. Later, GM backed out of the equity deal.
Along with staging the video, Milton was accused of falsely claiming to supply his personal hydrogen fuels at below-market charges and acquiring “billions and billions and billions and billions” of {dollars}’ price of dedicated truck orders. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
Nikola went public in 2020, and began transport its first vans lower than a yr later. It ramped up manufacturing in 2024, however was shedding tons of of hundreds of {dollars} on each truck it bought. As of the third quarter of final yr, the corporate had solely produced 600 autos, lots of which have been recalled as a result of defects, costing the automaker tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
Nikola was the most recent high-profile EV firm to go stomach after failing to satisfy excessive expectations. Different EV startups that failed embrace Lordstown, Proterra, and Fisker. TuSimple, a self-driving truck firm from China, pivoted to gaming tech.
