Electric truck and vehicle manufacturer Nikola has just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States.
It has been known for months that the fledgling company was experiencing financial difficulties. Rumours had been circulating for some time that the situation was untenable.
In fact, since its inception in 2014, the company, which focuses its activities on electric and hydrogen vehicles, has had a difficult few years. In 2020, Nikola unveiled the Badger, a pickup truck equipped with an electric motor and a hydrogen engine. The plans looked promising enough for General Motors to commit to participating in development with a view to a 2022 launch.
Shortly afterwards, Nikola was accused of fraud; company CEO Trevor Milton was convicted on several counts. The firm subsequently refocused its efforts on commercial vehicles. It delivered its first electric semi-trailers in 2022, but was unable to deliver enough in the following years to turn a profit.
Consequently, at the close of 2024, the company announced that it had liquid assets of $200 million, but debts of $270 million. When it was announced at the beginning of this month that bankruptcy proceedings were imminent, the company's share price plummeted to less than a dollar. The company's liquidity was down to $47 billion.
Nikola intends to continue supporting its customers who have vehicles in circulation, but on a limited basis. The firm's liabilities are said to be between $1 billion and $10 billion, the number of creditors between 1,000 and 5,000.
Nikola becomes the third electric vehicle company to file for bankruptcy in recent years, after Lordstown Motors in 2023 and Fisker last year.
Launching a new all-electric company is, as many predicted, not easy.