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His company was considered a new star in the automotive sky, it skyrocketed in the stock market, quickly became more valuable than Ford and Fiat Chrysler, and formed mega alliances, with Bosch and General Motors, among others.
But now Trevor Milton (39), the colorful founder of American electric truck maker Nikola, is out of the game. After the fraud allegations, he announced his resignation as Nikola’s boss.
Milton reached out to the board and voluntarily offered to resign from the position, the company said. As his successor, former General Motors Vice Chairman Stephen Girsky (59) has been appointed with immediate effect.
The initial shot for Nikola came in 2015. Like Elon Musk’s (49) Tesla car company, Milton leaned on famous inventor and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla when choosing the company name.
Since then, his team has been working on alternative powertrain technologies for trucks and large off-road vehicles. In the future, these will run on electric batteries and hydrogen fuel cells. The startup is also working on hydrogen truck charging stations.
Nikola went public in June, reaching a market capitalization of $ 34 billion, outperforming major auto companies without ever having built a green truck.
Nikola concluded strategic partnerships not only with Bosch, but also with Italian commercial vehicle maker CNH Industrial and American automaker General Motors.
But then came the cold shower for everyone waiting for a second Tesla: Investment company Hindenburg Research published an article that read like a dramatic warning for a long time.
Hindenburg Research accused Nikola of a “complex fraud” based on numerous lies by founder Trevor Milton.
The partners would be “misled” by the startup with the “false claim that they have important technologies.” The newspaper immediately lowered Nikola’s stock price: in three days, the price fell 36 percent.
Nikola rejected the allegations and reportedly denounced the investment company to the US stock exchange regulator for attempted price manipulation. But the counterattack to one of Hindenburg Research’s most serious allegations was only silenced: This is a scene from a video of the 2017 commissioning in which a prototype of the new truck can be seen in action.
According to Hindenburg Research, the vehicle first stopped on a hill and then simply lowered itself. There is no sign of a new unit.
Nikola justified himself by saying that the company never claimed that the video prototype was powered by its own engine. By the way, Bosch assigned several engineers for months of testing. It was “ridiculous” to believe that the partners were getting along with Nikola without knowing what they were doing.
In response to his resignation, Milton said the focus should be on the company and not on himself. He is still Nikola’s biggest fan: “I’ll cheer you on from the sidelines.”
