Trevor Milton of Nikola Resigns Amid Fraud Claims

One question about Hindenburg’s accusations is that they occurred while Nikola was still privately held and before it became bound by S.E.C. disclosure rules for publicly traded companies.

In a message posed on Twitter on Sept. 11, Mr. Milton said Hindenburg’s allegations were “lies,” and noted his company had retained the law firm Kirkland Ellis to work with the S.E.C.

“To be clear, this was not a research report and it is not accurate,” Nikola said in a statement. “This was a hit job for short sale driven by greed.”

In a lengthy written rebuttal to Hindenburg’s claims, Nikola acknowledged the truck shown in the 2017 promotional video was not moving on its own, but it said that a semi truck, called the Nikola Tre, was being produced in a joint venture with Iveco, the Italian truck maker, and said it would be available by the end of next year. Republic Services, the trash hauler, has placed an order for 2,500 electric garbage trucks, Nikola added.

Mr. Milton also posted pictures of what he said are five trucks being assembled in Ulm, Germany. “Do these look fake?” he wrote.

Before Mr. Milton’s resignation, Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at Navigant Research who follows developments in electric vehicles, said the company’s idea of powering and building a network of fueling stations around the country has merit.

A purely battery-powered semi, something Tesla is betting on, would likely have a shorter range than trucks with hydrogen fuel-cells, and a massive battery that could take hours to recharge — down time that could prove too costly to trucking companies.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/21/business/nikola-trevor-milton-resigns.html