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To become the next game-changer in zero-emission vehicles, you can’t rely on just good design. It seems that you also need to be brash and bold. Oh, and lots of tweeting.
You’re also bound to suffer from comparisons with other companies, like Tesla and their controversial founder, Elon Musk.
One company had all the necessary ingredients: an eccentric founder, a seemingly perfect vehicle, and many promises.
We are talking about Nikola Motor and its vision for the future of transportation. But it was a vision that shattered in a matter of months. We’ll tell you all about Nikola in this episode of Forensics.
Nikola Motor is born
This company is the brainchild of Trevor Milton.
He’s a bit of a dilemma. Half of the media calls him a veteran of the startup world, having formed two prior startups. The other half calls him a failure because his first two creations didn’t amount too much.
His second startup, dHybrid, aimed to reduce emissions by modifying diesel engines and turning them into hybrids. But dHybrid’s existence was turbulent, as one of its lead investors apparently robbed them of intellectual property.
