Electric truck startup Nikola files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

19 February 2025

Nikola Corporation—the Arizona-based developer of electric trucks and hydrogen fueling infrastructure—announced that the company, together with nine of its subsidiaries, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and plans to move forward with an auction and sale of its assets.

Nikola intends to continue certain limited service and support operations for trucks currently in the field, including certain HYLA fueling operations through the end of March 2025, the company said in a press release. Thereafter, Nikola would need partners to support such activities.

“Our customers have accumulated approximately 3.3 million fleet miles across both our FCEV and BEV truck platforms and our HYLA fueling network has dispensed well over 330 metric tons of hydrogen,” said Nikola CEO Steve Girsky. Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have impacted our ability to operate. In recent months, we have taken numerous actions to raise capital, reduce our liabilities, clean up our balance sheet and preserve cash to sustain our operations. Unfortunately, our very best efforts have not been enough to overcome these significant challenges.”

Nikola intends to market and sell all, substantially all, or a portion of its assets and effectuate an orderly wind down of its businesses. Information about this process and other documents related to the Chapter 11 proceedings are available from Epiq Corporate Restructuring.

Nikola went public in June 2020 without selling a single truck and at one point reached a market cap of $30 billion, higher than Ford Motor Company. Then came a mass recall of its vehicles in 2023, followed by a four-year prison sentence for founder Trevor Milton on charges of misleading investors.

Nikola stock has dropped from $21.18 a year ago to about 47 cents today (2/19).

Source: Nikola Corporation | Investopedia