Nikola Motor Company

Nikola Motor Company (Nikola), listed on the Nasdaq since June 2020, develops battery-electric (BEV) and hydrogen fuel cell-electric (FCEV) heavy-duty trucks, with plans to develop autonomous trucks in the future. The company has announced several zero-emission vehicle design concepts, including “Nikola One,” “Nikola Two,” “Nikola Tre,” and “Nikola Reckless” since 2016. These models are designed with the relevant hardware needed to support SAE Level-4 automation (i.e., fully autonomous vehicles limited to specific locations and/or conditions), making them capable of integrating software seamlessly in the future if needed. In January 2023, Nikola announced the launch of hydrogen mobile fueling stations which can be directly used to fuel FCEVs.

The company has two manufacturing facilities, one in Coolidge, Arizona (under phased development as of November 2022) and the other in Ulm, Germany, with the latter being a joint venture (JV) with the Italian alternative fuel-powered vehicle manufacturer IVECO. The company inaugurated its facility in Germany in September 2021 and aims to start production in Arizona by Q1 2023. The company also has a partnership with German multinational engineering and technology company Bosch (September 2021 and July 2023 ) to license the latter’s technology for hydrogen fuel-cell power modules.

Nikola started delivering Nikola Tre BEV pilot trucks to customers in December 2021 and began alpha testing the Nikola Tre FCEV model in February 2022. The company commenced series production of Nikola Tre BEVs in March 2022, and delivered 150+ trucks by Q2 2023, to deliver 250–350 Tre BEVs to dealers in 2023. The company commenced the series production of its FCEV truck in July 2023 and had received 200 FCEV orders from 18 customers as of August 2023 .

Nikola acquired the battery supplier Romeo Power to accelerate its battery pack production in August 2022; but started liquidating its assets in July 2023 due to increased costs of battery production.

Key customers and partnerships

As of May 2022, the company had an orderbook of 510 Nikola Tre BEV trucks and 1,010 Nikola Tre FCEV trucks. It has received orders from companies including AB InBev (800 FCEV trucks; 2018—completed alpha prototype testing in Q1 2022), Total Transportation (30 BEV and 70 FCEV trucks; May 2021 —delivered its first pilot BEVs in December 2021 and commenced alpha testing of FCEVs in May 2021), Hamburg Port Authority (25 BEV trucks; September 2021), PGT Trucking (100 FCEV trucks; October 2021), Tri-Eagles Sales (10 BEVs; October 2021), Heniff Transportation Systems (up to 100 BEV trucks starting with 10; December 2021), USA Truck (up to 100 BEVs starting with 10; January 2022), Saia (100 BEVs; January 2022), Covenant Logistics (10 BEVs and 40 FCEVs; January 2022), Wegmans (50 BEVs; in 1Q 2022), Arizona Lithium (1 BEV; March 2022), Univar Solutions (6 BEVs; April 2022), Biagi Brothers (15 FCEVs, January 2022), California’s Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project (HVIP) (78 BEVs; by May 2022), Walmart (BEVs for trials; June 2022), Zeem Solutions (100 BEVs; November 2022), Plug Power (75 FCEVs; December 2022), BayoTech (up to 50 FCEVs; July 2023), J.B. Hunt (10 BEVs and 3 FCEVs; August 2023), IMC (50 FCEVs; March 2024), and AiLO Logistics (100 FCEVs; May 2024). Nikola Tre BEV also got approved for the New York Truck Voucher Incentive Program (NYTVIP) in June 2022. In April 2023 , Nikola announced its entrance to the Canadian market with the sale of a BEV truck and an FCEV truck to Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA).

Nikola also has partnerships with several companies to provide sales and services for its commercial customers. Its dealer network includes RIG360, HOLT Truck Centers, Empire Truck & Trailer, Wagner Equipment Co., Ring Power, Carter Machinery, Quinn Company, and Alta Equipment Group. It also has a partnership with the autonomous truck manufacturer, Plus, to integrate an autonomous advanced driver assistance system into its Nikola Tre BEVs and hydrogen-electric vehicles ( February 2023 ). In September 2023 , Nikola partnered with the commercial trailer manufacturer ITD Industries to expand the dealer network of its Class 8 electric trucks into Canada.

The company also has partnerships with renewable natural gas and fueling and charging infrastructure providers such as Nel Hydrogen (2017), APS (January 2021), Wabash Valley Resources (June 2021), TC Energy (October 2021), OPAL Fuels (September 2021), Travel Centers of America (April 2022), E.ON (a JV; September 2022), KeyState Natural Gas Synthesis (October 2022), ChargePoint (November 2022), and BayoTech (July 2023) to strengthen its hydrogen refueling and EV charging ecosystem. Plug Power is also to supply 100 metric tons of hydrogen per day to Nikola, in exchange for FCEVs.

In January 2024 , Nikola partnered with ZF Group to integrate the latter's safety technologies into Nikola's Class 8 zero-emission trucks. The integrations included ZF's advanced automatic emergency braking (AEB) system, OnGuardMAX, and their radar-based blind spot detection (BSD) system, OnSideALERT.

Funding and financials

Nikola was listed on the Nasdaq in June 2020 by merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), valuing the combined entity at USD 3.3 billion. The company reported a revenue of 50.83 million in 2022, and it reported a net loss of USD 784.2 million for the year ended December 2022 (USD 1.11 loss per share). In May 2022, Nikola received a USD 200 million investment from Antara Capital LP through a sale of convertible senior notes to scale truck production and tooling setup, accelerate the development of hydrogen infrastructure, and for general corporate expenses. In April 2023 , Nikola announced its entrance to the Canadian market with the sale of a BEV truck and an FCEV truck to Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA).

The company subsequently announced (in March 2023) that it plans to raise USD 100 million through a secondary stock offering to the public, to use in meeting its working capital needs and for other general purposes. It also received a USD 41.9 million grant from the California Transportation Commission (CTC) in July 2023 to build open-access, heavy-duty hydrogen refueling stations across Southern California. In August 2023 , Nikola received an additional USD 16.3 million in regulatory funding to build its hydrogen refueling stations. It also won USD 165 million in an arbitration case against its former executive chairman, Trevor Milton in October 2023.