Nikola – new CEO says hydrogen semis still coming this year as it recalls battery trucks – Forbes.
Electric truckmaker Nikola has had a bad month. Since it announced a surprise management change just days before recalling all its battery-powered big rigs for potential fire risk, its stock has tumbled 61%. But amid the turmoil, the company says it remains on track to be the first manufacturer to deliver hydrogen fuel cell semis to customers this year.
The recall, announced Aug. 11, affected all 209 Tre BEV trucks delivered to customers and dealers in the past year, but a fix is in the works, CEO Steve Girsky told Forbes, without elaborating. Production of the model at Nikola’s Coolidge, Arizona, plant had already stopped temporarily owing to a surplus of unsold units and preparations to build fuel cell Tres on the same assembly line.
Girsky, previously Nikola’s chairman, who began running the Phoenix-based company just days before the recall.
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Steve Girsky, CEO said:
We’ve started the process of pulling trucks back to get them worked on at Coolidge and then it’s about launching the hydrogen truck
“There are challenges with any launch and we’re grinding through those. Everything this company had the vision for three years ago is coming to a head in the next six months in terms of launching the hydrogen truck and getting the stations up. It’s the chicken and the egg coming together.”
Nikola’s survival as a company could hinge on its ability to scale up production of nonpolluting hydrogen trucks — which it says will be able to haul loads at least 500 miles per tank — and ensure there are stations to provide the fuel.
Girsky, a long-time equity analyst and former General Motors vice chairman, is tightening Nikola’s business strategy from the wide-ranging vision of ousted founder Trevor Milton, who’s awaiting sentencing for securities and wire fraud convictions.
Three years ago, the company’s plans also included large-scale production facilities making “green” hydrogen from water and renewable power, international operations, a pickup truck, electric watercraft and all-terrain and military vehicles. Now it’s limited to building and selling hydrogen and battery trucks and setting up fuel stations with partner companies.
“The company had big eyes and a small stomach,” Girsky said. “They wanted to do lots of things but didn’t have the money for it.”
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Nikola’s New CEO Says Hydrogen Semis Still Coming This Year As It Recalls Battery Trucks, August 23, 2023
