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Suspicion was raised that Nikola, a promising hydrogen and electric truck startup in the United States, even paid for the car’s design. Following a report that Nikola does not own any hydrogen vehicle technology, this time it is claimed that the design of the long-haul hydrogen fuel cell truck ‘Nicola One’, which was designed by Nicola’s own founder, Trevor Milton , it was bought from a designer in Croatia. He left. On Wall Street, there was even a pessimistic outlook that Nikola’s stock price could fall another 75%.
On the 26th (local time), the Financial Times (FT) cited two sources and reported that founder Trevor Milton Nicolas, who has now left the company, purchased the design of his flagship truck, Nikola One, from a third party. FT reported that Milton met Adriano Moodry, a designer from Limak, a Croatian super electric car company, in 2015 to pay thousands of dollars to buy computer designs and virtual 3D models. Sources say the truck’s design was built as a graduation project.
This fact was revealed in the course of a patent infringement lawsuit between Nikola and Tesla. Nikola has filed a $ 2 billion lawsuit against Tesla for copying the design of its flagship model, ‘Nicola One’. Tesla insists that Nicolas copied Limac’s design first, so it cannot be said that they copied Nikola’s design.
Nicolas claimed that the Milton founder started designing the Nikola One directly in his basement in 2013, and since then other employees have joined the design work. The company also said it cost millions of dollars to develop the Nikola One. However, Tesla later refuted that Nikola’s design itself was based on Moody’s design rather than its own. Tesla also insisted that the original ‘Road Runner’ design that Moody released in 2010 was the original.
When Milton met Rimac’s design manager in 2014 or 2015, and when he patented the ‘Nicola One’ a year later, he claimed that Nikola’s patent was ineffective because he knew Rimac’s design.
Nikola, who has been attracting attention as the ‘second Tesla’, became embroiled in a controversy over fraud, and founder Milton resigned as chairman of the board of directors on the 20th. Hindenberg Research reported on the 10th that “ Nicolas is a scam company built on dozens of Milton lies, ” and since then Nikola’s stock has plummeted nearly 40%. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the US securities authorities and the US Department of Justice have also launched an investigation into Nikola’s fraud allegations.
Some predict that the stock price will continue to fall. “Nikola’s stock chart is completely broken,” said Steve Kaleyzian, founder and chief strategist at the TickerTalker trading platform, warning that “the stock could drop to $ 5 a share.” It has already reached the lowest point since its listing in June, and has plunged 80% from the previous high, but even predicted that it could fall 75% more than the current market price.
