- Electric truck startup Nicola was once higher than Ford, but has now been filed for bankruptcy.
- The truck manufacturer faced a high-profile fraud scam and eventually fled out of the money.
- Nicola is the latest once-time EV startup that is for fall.
Another will be Tesla rival filed for bankruptcy, in the latest indication how difficult it is to make money from EVS.
Electric and hydrogen truck manufacturer Nikola filed for chapter 11 for insolvency conservation and said it would sell its property between cash crunchs on Wednesday.
The Buzzy EV Startup rode a wave of excitement for public transport in 2020, when it became public in 2020 and at a point, at the time the price was more than $ 30 billion than the Ford.
Nicola signed a big deal with General Motors, but the founder entered into crisis after accusing the founder Crowver Milton of misleading investors about Nicola’s trade and technology.
In 2020, the short-seler Hindonburg Research revealed a sufficiently small position in Nicola, and a scary 15,000-word report, stating that the EV manufacturer “was a complex fraud manufactured on dozens of lies.”
“We have ever seen this level of deception in a public company, especially of this size,” the report by Hindenberg said.
This expanded a litni of allegations, including claims that the company showed a promotion video of its electric truck, driving a road with a road, a hill instead of going under its own steam, a hill instead of going under its own steam Was rolled under a hill below.
Milton resigned and was later sentenced to four years in jail, and Nicola was fined $ 125 million by SEC in 2021.
Nicola had recovered to some extent since then, last year a California logistics company made a deal to sell 100 trucks and announced in January that its updated battery-electric trucks had covered a million miles.
However, the startup recalled its entire fleet of Big Rigs in 2023 after several batteries fire, and eventually failed to commercialize their technology.
Nicola damaged more than $ 200 million in the third quarter of 2024, and in October, the company stated that there was only enough cash to run until the first quarter of this year.
Sam Fiorani, an industry analyst at autoforacast solutions, said, “The infection EVS has slowed down compared to all the appreciated manufacturers, and when it comes to commercial vehicles, it is actually a difficult segment,” an industry of autoforacast solutions Analyst Sam Fiorani told the business Insider.
Fiorani said that the way Nicola was building heavy trucks and semi-finals, they had extremely special requirements including quick fuel and long borders, making them a difficult product to bring them to the market.
EV startups go out of charge
Since the sales of electric vehicles have increased in the last one year, Nicola is only once-a bar-promissing EV startup to run out of money.
Fisher, Once as $ 8 billion, Last June filed for bankruptcy Its ocean got stricken after SUV Production delays and frequent software problems.
Canu, an electric van company, who also went public in 2020 in a special-appreciated acquisition company (SPAC) listing, went to the same month despite high-profile deals with NASA, Walmart and US Postal Service.
“Each investor was looking for the next Tesla 10 years ago. Venture capitalist was jumping into any EV startup and hoping to pay them in five or 10 years,” Fiorani said.
Fiorani said that the arrival of high interest rates had stopped the supply of easy money.
“To keep these companies funded, it seems more than only the wishful thinking that someday they will earn money,” Fiorani said.
Their failures show how difficult it is – and expensive – it is to build a viable electric vehicle business from scratches, forcing companies to spend huge amount for production.
Only Tesla, which almost a period of alone, has been able to become beneficial through selling EVS, many times in a period described as the “production hell” as the founder Elon Musk.
And Musk’s company now has the benefit of the scale, with Tesla about half of the electric vehicle in the US with Tesla is responsible for the sale.
‘Valley of death’
Even heritage vehicle manufacturers have fought to make money on EVS. Ford lost $ 5 billion on its EV business last year, and the Detroit car manufacturer told investors that this year it was likely to lose another $ 5 billion.
Other living electric vehicle startups are called the “valley of death”.
The rivian became public in 2021 in the $ 86 billion evaluation, but it lost about $ 39,000 on every vehicle sold in the last quarter. As it burns through cash, it has demanded money from Volkswagen and the federal government.
The loss in lousid motors rose by about $ 1 billion in the third quarter, and rely on funding injection from its largest shareholder, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.
“It is a solution to earn money and how difficult it is to turn on a successful business from a motor vehicle company, EV or otherwise,” Fionani said.
“In North America, we have seen a successful vehicle startup since World War II. Tesla is the only one who has hit the profit.”
