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Electric vehicle startup Nikola Corp. has announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy:
Nikola now joins a line of EV startups that fell into bankruptcy over the past year. While the Biden-Harris administration went full-speed ahead with a vision of EVs replacing gas-powered vehicles, electric-vehicle production has become a bad bet for the companies that jumped into the vision head-first. Consumers just never got on board with the plan.
With Trump planning to end federal EV mandates and legislation seeking to stop tax credits for the purchase of new EVs, the list of failed EV startups might continue to grow.
[...] The company went public in 2020, according to Bloomberg, through a deal with a special-purpose acquisition company. Nikola's stock went up after the transaction was closed, but shortly after, Bloomberg revealed its founder, Trevor Milton, had overstated the capability of the company's debut truck. He was later convicted on fraud charges.
"Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have impacted our ability to operate," Nikola president and CEO Steve Girsky said in a recent statement on the company's bankruptcy filing.
Previously:
- Nikola Stock Craters After Cancellation of Major Garbage Truck Order
- Nikola Stock Falls 14 Percent after CEO Downplays Badger Truck Plans
- Nikola's Deal With GM Was Supposed to Close Today—It Didn't
- Nikola Founder Bought Truck Designs From Third Party
- Nikola Stock Plunges 26% after Fraud Claims Complicate Hydrogen Plans
- New Report Claims Widespread Deception by Nikola Motor and Founder Trevor Milton
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Sunday February 23 2025, @07:00PM
Overstated, yeah. This business proclivity for exaggerating beyond the point where the claims can no longer be considered even slightly truthful has damaged the whole idea of EVs. I am also very skeptical of rooftop solar. When American businesses promote going green, they invariably push the ideas that profit them the most no matter how doubtful the benefits to the buyer.
So many of our current customs seem to have arisen from successful propagandistic advertising campaigns promoting really expensive solutions to trivial problems that have been blown way out of proportion, if they can be considered problems at all. For example, the idea that women should shave their legs that seems to have expanded to all body hair. Nice, for manufacturers of shaving products. Another example is the infamous extended warranty. One of the most irresponsible business strategies is to fan the flames of bigotry and fearmonger in order to increase sales of whatever products, such as guns, that can be made to seem useful for dealing with that "problem" that isn't a problem. That's the whole Military Industrial Complex for you.
Perhaps the smartest move for many people is real urban living instead of suburban sprawl, if you can find a space that doesn't cost a fortune to rent or own, and isn't a crime and decay riddled hellhole. Don't even have a car, use a bicycle or walk everywhere. And put technology to use, with telecommuting. Peddlers of cars, whether EV or not, don't want citizens to think of such ideas. But that "if" is a big if. One of the drivers (pun sort of intended) of the sprawl is the high cost of urban living space. Buying that home in the sticks has long been a strategy to fight back against high real estate prices. The car is a critical enabler of that strategy.