The deal with
GM, announced on September 8 - though the media and Wall Street analysts oohed and aahed over it and caused the shares of both companies to soar briefly - raised red flags about Nikola's so-called industry-leading core technology upon which all the hype had been built, namely its battery and fuel cell technology that were supposed to power its trucks.
In the deal with GM, however, it was revealed that GM's own Hydrotec fuel cell technology and Ultium battery systems would power Nikola's Badger pickup trucks, not Nikola's technology, which raised further doubts about the validity of Nikola's technology breakthrough claims.
Not only would GM provide the core technology for those trucks, Nikola also
disclosed that GM would "engineer, validate, homologate and build the Nikola Badger for both the battery electric vehicle and fuel cell electric vehicle variants as part of the in-kind services."
So that leaves just the name that GM was apparently interested in and the hype surrounding Nikola. And true to form, following the announcement of the partnership, GM's shares jumped 10%. Monday morning, GM's shares were down 7%, and below where they'd been before the announcements. And it's uncertain what remains of the value of Nikola's tainted name.
