'Nikola', called the 2nd Tesla,
Nikola was founded in 2014 by Trevor Milton with plans to produce carbon-free semi truck powered by hydrogen fuel cells. In June, it outperformed Ford's corporate value within a week after it was back-listed through a merger with the investment company VectoIQ, which was listed on NASDAQ in the U.S. In addition, the stock price surged by nearly 40% a day after the news that General Motors will take over 11% stake in Nikola and produce an electric vehicle and hydrogen fuel cell truck 'Badger' from the end of 2022. Although it is a truck manufacturer, it has never produced a single truck, but it is called the second Tesla due to possibility of commercializing core technologies in the field of hydrogen fuel cells.
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| 🔺nikolamotor.com Nikola's truck, Nikola One |
"Everything about Nikola is fake",
On the 10th, short seller Hindenberg Research released a report on Nikola. The title of the report was 'Nikola: How to Parlay An Ocean of Lies into a Partnership With the Largest Auto OEM in Amercia'. In the report, not only Nikola never has the capacity to produce hydrogen electric vehicles, but all of the hydrogen electric trucks 'Nikola One', which was unveiled in 2016, were all false. All of these lies were claimed to be deliberate tricks to inflate Nikola's corporate value. Shortly after the report came out, Nikola's share price plummeted 40%, Nikola refuted that the short selling forces are spreading false information to manipulate the stock price, but the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has also initiated an investigation into Nikola with the Ministry of Justice.
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| 🔺nikolamotor.com Nikola's truck, Badger |
Tesla's new argument,
Nikola is currently in a $2 billion design patent infringement lawsuit with Tesla. In 2018, Nikola filed a lawsuit claiming that Tesla's first commercial vehicle model, 'Semi Truck', copied the design of their truck, 'Nikola One'. In the lawsuit, Nikola said that the founder Trevor Milton began drafting the design of the 'Nikola One' model in 2013 and completed it with employees later. However, on the 23rd, Tesla disclosed a new fact in a response filed against the alleged patent infringement, refuting Nikola's claim. According to the response, Tesla said that Nikola had no right to claim the protection of the design.
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| 🔺wipsglobal.com Nikola's design patent |
In the first place, Nikola's design patent was not designed by himself, but rather from Croatian designer, Mudri. Mudri, the director of truck manufacturer 'Rimac', designed a truck that looked like Nikola One and won the Michelin Design Challenge in 2010, and Trevor Milton said that they had filed the design patent after meeting Mudri. For the above reasons, it is known that Tesla is considering filing the invalidation lawsuit against Nikola.
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| 🔺twitter.com/nikolamotor |
From technology to design, what is the truth?
General Motors, which acquired Nikola's stake, refuted Tesla's claim, saying that it had verified the technologies through due diligence before signing a contract with Nikola. However, the market appears to be more trusting Tesla's claims than Nikola. An American media reported that Trevor Milton's explanation of Nikola's business was somewhat vague, and even published a suspicious article. Eventually, the founder Trevor Milton has resigned. After his resignation, not only Nikola, but also allegations of sexual harassment of Milton in the past have been aggravated. With all sorts of controversy going on, I wonder if all of Nikola's things will be false, or if it will be a planned manipulation of the short selling forces, and what will be the consequences.
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