Електровантажівка Nikola
Nikola has officially filed for bankruptcy and plans to sell off its assets. This is another victim of the unstable electric vehicle market, where startups face low demand, financial difficulties, and rapid spending.
Nikola has had a difficult journey, including numerous management changes, a falling stock price, and accusations from stock market speculators.
«Like many other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced market and macroeconomic challenges that have made our work more difficult.
Despite our best efforts, we have not been able to overcome these challenges,” said Nikola CEO Steve Hirsky.
Nikola started as a manufacturer of battery trucks, but later shifted its focus to hydrogen electric trucks. The company said it was selling off assets to maximize value and organize an orderly closure. Some service centers and hydrogen filling stations will remain open until the end of March.
Nikola is based in Phoenix, Arizona, and only delivered its first vehicle in December 2021. In 2023, a series of fires in its electric trucks led to a recall of all vehicles, which undermined consumer confidence.
In 2024, the company was more active in producing hydrogen trucks, but each vehicle sold brought hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. High interest rates scared away potential buyers, and it was difficult for fleet operators to switch to electric trucks. Nikola’s plant in Coolidge, Arizona, had the capacity to produce 2,400 trucks a year.
The company went bankrupt with $500 million to $1 billion in assets and $1 billion to $10 billion in debt. By the end of September, cash reserves had fallen to $198.3 million, down from $464.7 million at the end of 2023. When Nikola filed for bankruptcy, it had only $47 million left.
On Wednesday, Nikola’s shares fell 38%, reducing its market capitalization to less than $50 million. For comparison, in 2020, the company was valued at $27 billion, more than Ford. The company’s shares have repeatedly fallen below $1, and in 2023 it had to conduct a reverse split (reducing the number of shares outstanding through consolidation) to meet Nasdaq exchange requirements.
After going public in 2020, the company became the victim of a scandalous report by the Hindenburg investment fund, which accused it of fraud. Nikola denied the allegations, but its founder and then CEO Trevor Milton was convicted of fraud in 2022 and was sentenced to four years in prison.
Nikola became another company that failed to withstand the fierce competition and financial difficulties in the electric car market. High costs, low demand, and technical problems led to its collapse, and now it is trying to sell its assets to minimize losses.
Many companies that went public during the pandemic with loud promises to change the electric vehicle market also failed to survive. Brands such as FiskerProterra and Lordstown Motors also declared bankruptcy due to high interest rates and reduced funding.
Even Tesla under the leadership of Elon Musk suffered its first sales decline in 2024.
Source: reuters