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If you haven't seen the Hindenburg report, I recommend reading it for the comedic value: https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola/ https://hindenburgresearch.com/n

If you haven't seen the Hindenburg report, I recommend reading it for the comedic value: https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola/ https://hindenburgresearch.com/nikola/ Notable laughs: * Nikola rolled their semi truck down a hill to show that it worked * Trevor appointed his brother Travis "Director of Hydrogen Production/Infrastructure" when his only experience was pouring concrete driveways * The infamous "HTML5 supercomputer" comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPL-PbDUKrM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPL-PbDUKrM

typon 5y ago
This company was an obvious scam from the beginning...the EV hype brought on by Tesla swept up so many naive people. Some of my family invested in this stock and lost a lot of money.
- lesuorac 5y ago
  It looks like share price was ~10$ at the start (2018 to 2020) and is currently ~13$ so presumable your family could cash out right now for a 30% profit.
  - vitaliyf 5y ago
    $10 was the SPAC before they merged to become NKLA. The merger was announced in March 2020 (when the price jumped to low teens) and completed in June (when the hype made it go up to $60s).
- dawnerd 5y ago
  I invested too, doesn’t mean it was necessarily a bad investment. You gotta take risks if you want to get in early on potential huge gains. Luckily I didn’t put too much in. Let that be a lesson to anyone, don’t invest into speculative companies unless you’re willing to lose it all.
  - engineer_22 5y ago
    don't conflate investment and speculation
    - dawnerd 5y ago
      It’s all the same. Investment firms all the time throwing money at speculation. It’s all about what your risk tolerance is.
- squarefoot 5y ago
  The company name alone should have been a hint that they were building on Tesla's hype. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
  - bluetwo 5y ago
    Exactly. First rule is making a fraud is to associate it with something credible.
- ajross 5y ago
  I think that's very much a hindsight kind of thing. I mean, yes, Nikola was a scam. But in "the beginning" the only people willing to say that it was a scam were ones who sounded exactly like the much louder, better funded, and media-accessible people screaming that Tesla was a scam. This very site was filled with $TSLAQ nonsense. And it was all wrong, much of it deliberately so. The investment world is drowning in deliberate misinformation. There's no path for reasoned criticism to break through. Pick any stock and there's someone willing to tell you it's a scam. Or a gem. Edit: and this subthread is a perfect, shining example. Just look at all the people jumping in to perpetuate and argument that somehow Tesla is, I guess, comparably fraudulent to Nikola, a company that got caught faking a vehicle that didn't exist. No one trusts you people, because you sound the same for everything.
  - hef19898 5y ago
    In all fairness there was a non-zero chance of Tesla running out of money at one point. At the final word on Tesla being worth what it is hasn't been spoken neither. I do have to give Musk credit for being able to maintain Tesla the way he does, under everyone else the company wouldn't exist anymore. Not that I think Tesla is particularly well run so, but Elon's ability to entertain the market and keep money flowing is impressive.
    - Aperocky 5y ago
      The ability to run pump and dumps in crypto with impunity definitely helps.
      - nickik 5y ago
        No it doesn't. Stop claiming this nonsense. It is totally irrelevant for Tesla financials.
        heavyset_go 5y ago
        Tesla's Q1 operating profit of $594M was slightly less than the sum of their $101M Bitcoin profit and the $518M regulatory credits they received.
Hypocritelefty 5y ago
But FSD doesn't work downhill as well yet space jesus is free.
rvz 5y ago
It's great to unveil such 'scams' and have investigations like this for everyone to see. I'm glad I shorted them before all of this. So we'll see what happens next. Now the next great scam we all want answers for and we need to talk about is that misleading contraption called FSD.
the-dude 5y ago
> when his only experience was pouring concrete driveways In NL we call this 'has affinity with the core business'.
- hugi 5y ago
  "Has paved paths and laid foundations for the automobile industry"
  - the-dude 5y ago
    Are you in PR? :-) I think paved ways is canonical ( not a native speaker though ).
    - armadsen 5y ago
      “Paved the way” is the common expression.
yashap 5y ago
Wow, thanks for sharing, I’d never seen this before: > "The entire infotainment system is a HTML 5 super computer," Milton said. "That's the standard language for computer programmers around the world, so using it let's us build our own chips. And HTML 5 is very secure. Every component is linked on the data network, all speaking the same language. It's not a bunch of separate systems that somehow still manage to communicate." The founder of an apparently very technically challenging company speaking like that should have been an instant red flag, that’s absolute nonsense.
- qeternity 5y ago
  It’s not even so much his poor understanding of the underlying infotainment tech. I wouldn’t expect him to know the architecture. A good CEO would be fine delegating that. What speaks volumes is that he clearly has no idea what he’s talking about but speaks as if he’s a domain authority. Of course, this is a classic trait of a megalomaniac fraudster.
- vmception 5y ago
  But speaking like that moves people, I am trying to learn Its like when you choose Intelligence 0 in Fallout, everyone that is smart sounds dumb and everyone dumb sounds normal Predicting how to relate to people to make an investment is something some of these sales guys get that I don’t I can persuade people to do a lot of things, but selling equity to a bunch of technophobic old money and English as a Second Language people? Learning
- majani 5y ago
  Scammers sometimes intentionally dumb down their language to filter out discerning people from their audience. That way they only remain with a non-technical audience who are charmed with the scammer's presence.

typon 5y ago

This company was an obvious scam from the beginning...the EV hype brought on by Tesla swept up so many naive people. Some of my family invested in this stock and lost a lot of money.

lesuorac 5y ago
It looks like share price was ~10$ at the start (2018 to 2020) and is currently ~13$ so presumable your family could cash out right now for a 30% profit.
- vitaliyf 5y ago
  $10 was the SPAC before they merged to become NKLA. The merger was announced in March 2020 (when the price jumped to low teens) and completed in June (when the hype made it go up to $60s).
dawnerd 5y ago
I invested too, doesn’t mean it was necessarily a bad investment. You gotta take risks if you want to get in early on potential huge gains. Luckily I didn’t put too much in. Let that be a lesson to anyone, don’t invest into speculative companies unless you’re willing to lose it all.
- engineer_22 5y ago
  don't conflate investment and speculation
  - dawnerd 5y ago
    It’s all the same. Investment firms all the time throwing money at speculation. It’s all about what your risk tolerance is.
squarefoot 5y ago
The company name alone should have been a hint that they were building on Tesla's hype. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
- bluetwo 5y ago
  Exactly. First rule is making a fraud is to associate it with something credible.
ajross 5y ago
I think that's very much a hindsight kind of thing. I mean, yes, Nikola was a scam. But in "the beginning" the only people willing to say that it was a scam were ones who sounded exactly like the much louder, better funded, and media-accessible people screaming that Tesla was a scam. This very site was filled with $TSLAQ nonsense. And it was all wrong, much of it deliberately so. The investment world is drowning in deliberate misinformation. There's no path for reasoned criticism to break through. Pick any stock and there's someone willing to tell you it's a scam. Or a gem. Edit: and this subthread is a perfect, shining example. Just look at all the people jumping in to perpetuate and argument that somehow Tesla is, I guess, comparably fraudulent to Nikola, a company that got caught faking a vehicle that didn't exist. No one trusts you people, because you sound the same for everything.
- hef19898 5y ago
  In all fairness there was a non-zero chance of Tesla running out of money at one point. At the final word on Tesla being worth what it is hasn't been spoken neither. I do have to give Musk credit for being able to maintain Tesla the way he does, under everyone else the company wouldn't exist anymore. Not that I think Tesla is particularly well run so, but Elon's ability to entertain the market and keep money flowing is impressive.
  - Aperocky 5y ago
    The ability to run pump and dumps in crypto with impunity definitely helps.
    - nickik 5y ago
      No it doesn't. Stop claiming this nonsense. It is totally irrelevant for Tesla financials.
      - heavyset_go 5y ago
        Tesla's Q1 operating profit of $594M was slightly less than the sum of their $101M Bitcoin profit and the $518M regulatory credits they received.

Hypocritelefty 5y ago

But FSD doesn't work downhill as well yet space jesus is free.

rvz 5y ago

It's great to unveil such 'scams' and have investigations like this for everyone to see. I'm glad I shorted them before all of this. So we'll see what happens next. Now the next great scam we all want answers for and we need to talk about is that misleading contraption called FSD.

the-dude 5y ago

> when his only experience was pouring concrete driveways In NL we call this 'has affinity with the core business'.

hugi 5y ago
"Has paved paths and laid foundations for the automobile industry"
- the-dude 5y ago
  Are you in PR? :-) I think paved ways is canonical ( not a native speaker though ).
  - armadsen 5y ago
    “Paved the way” is the common expression.

yashap 5y ago

Wow, thanks for sharing, I’d never seen this before: > "The entire infotainment system is a HTML 5 super computer," Milton said. "That's the standard language for computer programmers around the world, so using it let's us build our own chips. And HTML 5 is very secure. Every component is linked on the data network, all speaking the same language. It's not a bunch of separate systems that somehow still manage to communicate." The founder of an apparently very technically challenging company speaking like that should have been an instant red flag, that’s absolute nonsense.

qeternity 5y ago
It’s not even so much his poor understanding of the underlying infotainment tech. I wouldn’t expect him to know the architecture. A good CEO would be fine delegating that. What speaks volumes is that he clearly has no idea what he’s talking about but speaks as if he’s a domain authority. Of course, this is a classic trait of a megalomaniac fraudster.
vmception 5y ago
But speaking like that moves people, I am trying to learn Its like when you choose Intelligence 0 in Fallout, everyone that is smart sounds dumb and everyone dumb sounds normal Predicting how to relate to people to make an investment is something some of these sales guys get that I don’t I can persuade people to do a lot of things, but selling equity to a bunch of technophobic old money and English as a Second Language people? Learning
majani 5y ago
Scammers sometimes intentionally dumb down their language to filter out discerning people from their audience. That way they only remain with a non-technical audience who are charmed with the scammer's presence.