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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: 2) by ledow on Monday February 24 2025, @11:02AM
Quite.
I bought a brand new ICE car from Ford 10 years ago. EV were just far too expensive.
I'm now looking at what happens when that same car is too expensive to run, maintain or I just fancy a change. I've decided, 100%, categorically: EV.
But if I go on Ford's website for EVs... £40,000. That's TWICE what I paid for a car 10 years ago. And they are - as you say - "trucks" (I'm including SUV in that, I have no interest in them) and sportscars and there is no "basic" EV.
They even reinvented the long-dead "Capri" line of branding, which has a terrible reputation. And the Capri EV is... basically £40,000. For £46k you could have a Mustang EV.
Sorry, but inflation has NOT doubled prices in ten years, and EVs have actually weirdly got MORE expensive in that time.
I want an EV equivalent to my Mondeo (called Fusion in the US), or old Escort, or even a Sierra. A runaround car that isn't prohibitive and doesn't need to seat 8, but in which I can put my shopping and carry a couple of passengers. Something I can park without needing 40 cameras to see everything.
The hatchback type of car appears dead in EV terms from Ford, which is incredibly annoying, and they have nothing that even comes close to a year's average annual salary in the UK.
Many of the "big brands" are the same... it's basically forcing me down to the niche, foreign and cheaper brands, and even smaller cars, which is ridiculous. It should be the other way around, but Ford et al are still pushing all their mass production capabilities into ICE cars rather than EV, which is ridiculous with deadlines looming.