Nikola (NKLA) kills deal to make electric garbage trucks because it’s too hard?

Nikola (NKLA) announced that the company and a partner have canceled a deal to make electric garbage trucks, and the reason they gave is basically that it is too hard.

Earlier this year, Nikola, which is better known for its electric-hydrogen trucks, and Republic Services, a large US-based waste disposal company, announced that they would work together to “design and build an industry-first fully integrated refuse truck based on a zero-emissions battery-electric drive platform.”

Today, they announced that they have discontinued the collaboration.

In a press release, Nikola said that it would be too long and costly to build such a truck:

After considerable collaboration and review, both companies determined that the combination of the various new technologies and design concepts would result in longer than expected development time, and unexpected costs. As a result, the program is being terminated resulting in the cancellation of the previously announced vehicle order.

Several other companies have already been working and delivered electric waste management trucks.

BYD has a 3.9-ton battery-powered garbage truck capable of traveling 100 miles on electric range.

Mack and Volvo have also unveiled electric garbage trucks, and Daimler recently announced that it would bring one to market.

As we have been reporting over the last few months, Nikola is currently in hot water after a report from Hindenburg Research made several allegations exposing deception by Nikola and its founder Trevor Milton, including several claims corroborated in previous reports from Electrek and Bloomberg.

Nikola issued a response to those claims, but as we reported, the response lacked any rebuttal of the main allegations of deception by the company and its founder, Milton.

For the most damning one, the claim that it faked the first video of its hydrogen truck driving, the company even admitted to it without issuing an apology and instead claimed its deception was fine due to a technicality.

Milton ended up leaving the company as the pressure started to increase.

Last month, GM canceled the deal to build Nikola’selectric-hydrogen Badger pickup truck, and the company ended up refunding the deposits to reservation holders.

Electrek’s Take

I know Nikola’s stock went down another 10% today after the news came out, but I’m still having a lot of problems wrapping my head around the fact that the company is worth $6 billion.

I mean, the excuse they are giving here for this deal falling through is basically that it is too hard to make an electric garbage truck.

Maybe it’s too hard for you, Nikola, but other companies are doing it just fine.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Republic killed the deal because they didn’t want anything to do with Nikola after they have been exposed.

Even a company that deals with garbage all the time doesn’t want to deal with Nikola.