Nikola founder Trevor Milton overstated the functionality of the Nikola One prototype, report says

The hydrogen-powered heavy truck startup Nikola is worth it an insane amount of money for some reason these days, even though they never produced anything that people can actually buy. In addition, the company’s CEO, Trevor Milton, was increasingly optimistic about his company’s future on Twitter.

None of this should be terribly surprising at this point, nor should the phenomenon of startup founders exaggerate their products. Still, there is a difference between over-hyping and utterly deceiving people, and according to a report published by Bloomberg on Wednesday, Milton appears to fall into the latter category.

The article claims that Nikolas Nikola One hydrogen fuel cell truck That debuted back in 2016 and Milton suggested that they be able to drive on their own. According to Bloomberg’s sources, the truck didn’t even have a fuel cell. Milton even confirmed that the prototype never drove on its own.

That the truck wasn’t working wouldn’t have been a big deal – many concepts don’t work beyond some lights and seats, others don’t even work as much. However, based on Milton’s testimony, it seems to us that he was dishonest and that now, about three and a half years later, he is benefiting from this $ 7.8 billion dishonesty.

Nikola had originally planned to keep his Nikola One trucks in the hands of customers from 2020, but it seems that the company was a little overzealous about this as well. This is also not atypical – do you remember the $ 35,000 Tesla Model 3? – but it underscores the bizarre position the company is in, with a $ 22 billion market cap and no product or sales plans for 2020.

How does Nikolas CEO feel about all of this? Just like the CEO of this other electric vehicle manufacturer, all you have to do is look up to Twitter.

So yes, he’s pretty angry, even though he personally confirmed the more damned facts. His calls to publish the complete and unprocessed version of the interview are interesting. Still, the damage is likely to have already been done, and we would not be surprised if this would affect Nikola’s future business.

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Look at that:

In the Nikola One hydrogen-electric semitrailer

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