In March 2020, Nikola Corporation announced its plans to merge with VectoIQ Acquisition Corporation (ticker VTIQ), a publicly traded special-purpose acquisition company run by former General Motors (GM) vice-chairman Stephen Girsky. The two-day midweek event included a public demo day to show off the Nikola Two truck, the Nikola Tre truck, the Nikola NZT UTV, and the Nikola WAV watercraft. In April 2019, Nikola held the Nikola World event in Scottsdale, Arizona. Russell had most recently been president and CEO of Nikola Corporation's investor, Worthington Industries. In February 2019, Mark Russell was hired as company president. Nikola said in 2019 that they expected truck factory construction to start in 2020, truck construction in 2021, and the fabrication of 35–50,000 trucks per year by 2023. In March 2019, Nikola acquired a 389-acre parcel of land in Coolidge, Arizona, for $23 million, with future state and local tax breaks.

Īs of 2016, the first 5,000 Nikola One hydrogen-powered glider trucks were slated to be built by Fitzgerald Glider Kits in Tennessee ( gliders are truck vehicle platforms without engines). Nikola Corporation was founded by Trevor Milton in 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah. In October 2022 Milton was found guilty in federal court of three of four counts of fraud against him, over statements he made while CEO of the company. Publicly traded shares in Nikola dropped to around US$12 after falling from over $65 in mid-2020, when its market valuation had exceeded that of the Ford Motor Company. The indictment charged Milton with three counts of criminal fraud-for 'lying about 'nearly all aspects of the business''-and two counts of securities fraud. In July 2021, a United States federal grand jury indicted Nikola founder and former CEO Trevor Milton, but did not indict the company. In September 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice launched investigations into securities fraud allegations. Nikola Corporation is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Like Tesla, Inc., the company is named in honor of Nikola Tesla, but is not related to the inventor. The company delivered its first two battery-electric trucks in December 2021. In February 2022, the company projected deliveries of between 300 and 500 of its first battery-electric semitrucks - known as the Nikola Tre - to customers. It presented several vehicle concepts from 2016 to 2020, the first of which was a natural gas fueled turbine-electric semi truck. Nikola Corporation is an American manufacturer of heavy-duty commercial battery-electric vehicles, fuel-cell electric vehicles, and energy solutions.

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