Nikola (NKLA) announced that the company and a partner have canceled an agreement to manufacture electric garbage trucks, and the reason they stated is basically that it is too hard.
Earlier this year, Nikola, better known for its electric hydrogen carts, and Republic Services, a major U.S.-based waste disposal company, announced they would work together to “design and build the industry’s first fully integrated waste vehicles based on a zero-emission battery-powered electric platform. ”
Today, they announced that they have suspended cooperation.
In a press release, Nikola said that it would be too long and expensive to build such a truck:
“After considerable collaboration and review, both companies decided that the combination of the various new technologies and design concepts would result in longer than expected development time and unexpected costs. As a result, the program terminates, resulting in the cancellation of the previously announced vehicle order. ”
Several other companies have already worked and have supplied electrical waste management vehicles.
BYD has a 3.9-ton battery-powered garbage truck that is capable of driving 100 miles on electric range.
Mack and Volvo have also unveiled electric garbage trucks, and Daimler recently announced that it would bring one to market.
As we have reported over the last few months, Nikola is currently in hot water after a report by Hindenburg Research made several allegations of fraud by Nikola and its founder Trevor Milton, including several allegations confirmed in previous reports from Electrek and Bloomberg.
Nikola issued a response to these allegations, but as we reported, the response lacked any refutation of the main allegations of fraud by the company and its founder, Milton.
For the most judgmental, the claim that it forged the first video of its hydrogen car driving, the company even admitted it without issuing an apology and instead claimed that its deception was fine because of a technicality.
Milton ended up leaving the company as pressure began to rise.
Last month, GM canceled the deal to build Nikola’s electric hydrogen Badger pickup truck, and the company ended up repaying the deposits to reservation holders.
Electrek’s Take
I know Nikola’s stock fell another 10% today after the news came out, but I’m still having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around the fact that the company is worth $ 6 billion.
I think the excuse they are giving here for this deal to fall through is basically that it’s too difficult to make an electric garbage truck.
Maybe it’s too hard for you, but other companies are doing just fine.
If you want my opinion, I would not be surprised if Republic killed the deal because they did not want anything to do with Nikola after they were exposed.
Even a company that deals with waste all the time will not deal with Nikola.
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