Nikola goes bankrupt, capping troubled EV maker’s long slide

A Nikola Tre battery-electric heavy duty truck in 2021. Photographer: Andreas Gebert/Bloomberg (Andreas Gebert/Bloomberg)

Nikola Corp. filed for bankruptcy, culminating a long slide for the onetime darling of the electric-vehicle industry, which struggled with weak sales and cycled through CEOs in the wake of a fraud scandal.

The company plans to liquidate its assets after entering Chapter 11 in Delaware on Wednesday. In court documents, it listed assets between $500 million and $1 billion, and liabilities between $1 billion and $10 billion.

The filing caps a struggle by the maker of electric and hydrogen-powered semi trucks get a handle on dwindling cash, slow sales and a collapsing stock price. Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Nikola was exploring a possible bankruptcy filing as the company acknowledged it was “relentlessly working to raise capital.”

Nikola’s shares plunged 54% as of 8 a.m. Wednesday before regular trading in New York. The stock lost 97% of its value over the past 12 months through Tuesday.

The company has been on a tumultuous journey since it went public in 2020 through a deal with a special purpose acquisition company, with its stock surging in its early days. Shortly after, Bloomberg News reported that founder Trevor Milton had overstated the capability of Nikola’s debut truck. Those allegations, coupled with a subsequent short-seller campaign targeting the company, led to Milton’s ouster and later conviction on fraud charges.

In recent years, the company has endured cash-flow issues, slow demand and executive turnover. Nikola also recalled its battery-electric trucks after battery fires in 2023 prompted it to temporarily halt sales.

Chief Executive Officer Steve Girsky, a former Morgan Stanley analyst and General Motors Co. executive, had been leading a recent effort to raise money or find strategic alternatives, Bloomberg reported.

EV Tumult

Nikola is the latest manufacturer to succumb to a punishing environment for EVs, which are struggling to maintain traction due to high costs, spotty charging infrastructure and lukewarm customer interest. Fisker Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June, while Canoo Inc. announced a Chapter 7 filing Jan. 17 — both companies, like Nikola, went public via blank-check reverse mergers during a wave of such listings in 2020. The Swedish battery maker Northvolt AB filed for bankruptcy protection in the US in November.

With its bankruptcy filing, Nikola is seeking authorization to pursue an auction and sale process, the company said in a statement. The company said it intends to meet obligations to employees, and it has $47 million of cash on hand.

Nikola’s market value peaked at $29 billion in the days after it began trading, but it had fallen to less than $100 million before the filing.

--With assistance from Jeremy Hill, Luca Casiraghi and Catherine Larkin.