Nikola admitted that its prototype semi-truck was powered by its own electric motor. This comes after many accusations were levelled after an expose by Hindenburg Research, which claimed that the organisation and its founder, Trevor Milton, lied to manoeuvre their way into the forefront of the EV market which is seeing a boom. At the beginning of 2016, Trevor Milton, Nikola founder showcased a prototype of the Nikola One truck and later that year in December 2016, he depicted it as fully operational.
"We will have a chain on the seats to stop people from coming in only for safety. I don't want a person to wind up doing something and driving this truck off the stage," Milton said. "This thing fully works and functions, which is actually unbelievable," he added.
Hindenburg alleged that the truck was "only filmed rolling down a steep hill," and that Nikola utilised camera trickery to give the audience the illusion of powered movement. Nikola still failed to explain this in its own attempt to justify its actions on saying that many components of the truck were operational but he never said its truck was moving by virtue of its own propulsion in the video, even though the truck was made to do precisely that." You can see the video in question below!
The Nikola Badger will get a GM powertrain
Nikola disregarded the video of the One as "irrelevant" considering that the video is three years old, and now Nikola has even stopped the development on the truck anyway. A Hindenburg report revealed that Milton and the company significantly overprojected its own technology and development procedures. The start-up allegedly had fuel-cell and battery-powered technology installed and ready with the One semi, which Nikola today calls an "exceptionally successful proof of concept."
The Nikola Badger will be a high performance pickup truck
Nikola repeatedly describes Hindenburg as being a "short seller" in its announcement. Hindenburg did reveal that it might benefit if Nikola's stock performs poorly.
The Hindenburg report, which accuses the start-up of several different lies and mirages, was
revealed a day after General Motors signed a venture to build Nikola's promised electric pickup-truck and also supply battery and fuel-cell hardware.
