
I didn't know they had actually managed to sell these trucks.
After the fiasco with the gravity powered semi, I was not expecting this company to survive.
Electric semi truck maker Nikola's fortunes just keep getting worse – after a couple dismal quarters, it's now recalling nearly all of its battery electric vehicles due to a fire risk. The automaker said Friday it was recalling approximately 209 Class 8 Tre BEV semi trucks, as well as putting a hold on sales of the vehicles …
Can't see that they can survive. Truck making is a volume business, the buyers are deeply conservative, service lives (and thus support) is decades long, and despite being a volume business, manufacturers have to be very happy to change things to please specific customers. The big truck makers are looking at the options for non-fossil trucks, but rightly reckon the time is not right. And niche truck makers don't survive in the modern market.
I'd also observe that the Nikola product is in fact an Iveco S-way chassis, suspension and bodywork, in which case buying a Nikola is investing your cash in what in technological terms is a retrofit battery conversion by a third party. If that's what you want, then it's a steal. If you want a product designed as a BEV, then best to wait a few years.
"After the fiasco with the gravity powered semi, I was not expecting this company to survive."
I just watched a video on the Nikola with Rich Benoit and Sandy Munro taking test drives. The rep was saying they have over 100 trucks in customer hands. The battery packs are also very modular so it looks like any fixes won't be that hard to accomplish if it's hardware rather than software. At this point, Nikola is ahead of Tesla on big trucks and Tesla is also having to work on problems their trucks with Frito-Lay/Pepsi are having. Nikola had a handful of prototype trucks on loan to various companies before they started production to get feedback and I have to wonder if Pepsi is Tesla's guinea pig. VW survived their little problem.
Nikola doesn't require its customers to sign a NDA and not disclose anything about the trucks. hmmmmmm.