Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Nikola filed on Wednesday for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware. Shares of the Phoenix-based EV maker had been halted early Wednesday after having surged 6% in the pre-market session.
The company said that intends to continue “certain limited directly provided (non-dealer) service and support operations for trucks currently in the field,” including certain fueling operations of its hydrogen refueling brand HYLA until the end of March.
“Thereafter, the Company will need one or more partners to support such activities,” Nikola warned.
In a statement, the chief executive Steve Girsky said, “With the dedication of our employees and support from our partners, Nikola has taken significant steps to move zero-emissions transportation forward, including bringing the first commercially available Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks to market in North America and developing the HYLA hydrogen refueling highway, connecting Northern California to Southern California.”
“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,” he added.
Girsky stated that the company “faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have impacted our ability to operate,” as it happened with “other companies in the EV industry.”
Last October, the company’s chief financial officer Tom Okray stated that the company had a cash runway of “five to six months,” with a monthly burn rate of $30 million to $40 million.
The chief executive mentioned that Nikola took “numerous actions to raise capital, reduce our liabilities, clean up our balance sheet and preserve cash to sustain our operations” which were not successful.
“Unfortunately, our very best efforts have not been enough to overcome these significant challenges, and the Board has determined that Chapter 11 represents the best possible path forward under the circumstances for the Company and its stakeholders,” he concluded.
The stock jumped 41% on Tuesday doubling from its recent record low of $0.40 reached immediately after a report that the company was in discussions with its law firm and preparing to file for bankruptcy.
Nikola had recently updated its quarterly recall report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) disclosing it had fixed 111 battery electric truck out of the 209 recalled for fire risk in August 2023.
