Nikola Motors, the de facto Tesla Motors impersonator with a hint of hydrogen, announced that they began taking $ 5,000 deposits for a truck that only exists in renders and that they only plan to make because of Tesla Cybertruck.
While Nikola is the one suing Tesla for allegedly copying them, Nikola has definitely been following in Tesla’s footsteps.
Obviously, they decided to use Nikola Tesla’s first name after Tesla used the famous inventor’s last name. Also, after Tesla launched its “Tesla Energy” division, Nikola quickly followed up with its own ‘Nikola Energy’.
Now that Tesla is making an electric van, the Cybertruck, Nikola is making his, too, and is directly related to the Cybertruck.
Before Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck last year, Trevor Milton, the founder of Nikola Motors, tweeted the renders of a truck the company created and suggested that Tesla could use them for the Cybertruck since Nikola did not plan to build a truck.
The comment seemed ironic as Nikola is also accusing Tesla of stealing his design for his electric truck.
However, after Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck and its polarizing design, Milton said he now plans for Nikola to build the vehicle called Badger:
“We weren’t planning if I built an attractive truck. I was hoping to be first on the list, but I would never buy a Cybertruck. Badger is what I expected Tesla to create in terms of design. So if he doesn’t, I will. Now our interest is through the roof and why wouldn’t I?
In February, they announced their plans for the Nikola Badger with a hybrid battery / fuel cell propulsion system that allows for 600 miles of range, acceleration from 0-60 mph in 2.9 seconds, and released some renders:
Months later, we still haven’t seen a working prototype of the truck, but today, the company decided to start taking reserves with badger deposits.
Ironically, two years ago, Nikola reimbursed all reservation holders for their semi-trailers because they did not like to use deposits:
“Great news! All reservations will be 100% refunded and you will not lose your place in line. We do not use your money to operate our business. We want everyone to know that we have never used a dollar of deposit money to operate the company. like other companies do. “
The mention of “other companies” was believed to be a jab in Tesla, which is known to use this reserve model with deposits.
Nikola is now taking $ 5,000 deposits to reserve the truck, which won’t be released until December.
The company has also partnered with Diesel Brothers from the television show Discovery. The two brothers will get generous stock compensation for every badger sold by Nikola, and with Nikola’s valuation shooting up to $ 25 billion, the Diesel Brothers would receive millions if the pickup hits the market.
The taking of Electrek
The sequence of events that led to this shows a lot about Nikola Motors.
Less than a year ago, Milton said Nikola will not make a truck. They had no plans to build anything other than having a few renders.
Then Tesla introduces the Cybertruck and Milton reveals the design.
Remember, they only have renders at this point and yet they advertise a ton of specs, also impressive.
Five months later, they still don’t have a prototype to show, but they are starting to take reserves with deposits, something they despised not too long ago.
The way it seems to me is that Nikola makes a bunch of claims about what they could do, generate a bunch of hype with reservations, and then try to figure it out from there.
I think that might also be true for Nikola’s other products. Bloomberg recently reported that Milton exaggerated when he said the truck they unveiled in 2016 was a working prototype, and I also heard that the powertrain was not finished when the truck was unveiled.
In short, I would stay away from Nikola until they can demonstrate that they can deliver a product.
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