[AUTO] Nikola, the new Tesla that is worth 22,000 million without having sold a car

[YaKuZa--BoSs]

The American company is worth almost as much as Ford, which sold 5.4 million vehicles in 2019. It has a 'pick up' and a truck in its portfolio.

 

The Badger is a hydrogen and electric 'pick up' with more than 900 km of autonomy

 

 

When Tesla announced its Model 3 in 2016, and even knowing that the first cars would take well over a year to arrive, 400,000 fervent customers rushed to reserve a previous payment of $ 1,000.

Yesterday, and after multiplying its listing by four in 12 months -the title exceeded $ 1,000-, the Elon Musk company fights from you to you with Toyota for being the first manufacturer in the world by market capitalization. Both fluctuate around the 160,000 million euros and to find the third manufacturer in this ranking, you have to go down to the 69,000 million in which the VW Group is valued.

 

 

 

 

Nikola Motor, another American builder specializing in zero emission vehicles and who also takes his name from inventor and engineer Nikola Tesla, has just presented his credentials in this crazy race: he has been announcing the opening of orders for his Badger model, a pick-up of hydrogen battery and batteries, so that their shares double their price. The company is now worth $ 21.9 billion, just $ 2 billion less than Ford Motor.

REALITY OR A SPECULATIVE BUBBLE?
The difference is that while the latter has factories around the world and in 2019 sold 5.4 million cars, Nikola will not deliver its first vehicle until 2021 (although last year it said it had 13,000 orders) and expects to bill ... 1,000 million in 2023. Not to mention benefits.

 

 

In fact, there are analysts who consider his case as a merely speculative bubble that will lead to a strong correction in value in a short time. And if at the beginning of this week their titles were sometimes exchanged at almost $ 93, Thursday closed at just over $ 60.

However, there is also data to support the project, although it is still a long way from Tesla's. For example, in April the latter's shares - which were then around $ 710 - gave themselves a rise of more than 10%, after Credit Suisse predicted that it would come out of the crisis much better by being specialized in electric vehicles. A type of car still a minority among the big builders who, in addition, can see how world demand contracts 20% this year - to 70 million vehicles - if S&P forecasts are met.

 

 

 

The Badger pickup that has sparked euphoria among investors was announced by Nikola President and Co-Founder Trevor Milton via Twiter, Musk's preferred formula for communicating with his 36 million followers.

The model in question promises a power of 906 horsepower that will allow it to accelerate from 0 to 100 in just 2.9 seconds and its autonomy, added to that provided by the fuel cell and an additional battery, will be around 900 kilometers. It will start production in 2022 and will rival the Tesla Cybertruck and the 100% electric version of the Ford F-150, another pick-up that has been the best-selling car in the US for decades. "My goal is to take the throne off the Ford F-150," said Milton.

The ordering reserves will open on June 29 to coincide with the Nikola World 2020. There, Milton assured that "you will see a unit of the real 'pick-up' in operation, not a fake truck." In addition, the event would serve for the Phoenix-based company to show its revolutionary battery that promises to double the range for electric vehicles.

 

 

That is the technology of the Tre truck, with a range of 400 kilometers and that will be the model with which Nikola's industrial career begins. Its production will be carried out by Iveco, the manufacturer of trucks and buses of CNH Industrial, which decided to award it to its plant in Ulm (Germany), although it was also in the Madrid pools. Of course, the Tre is based on the S-Way tractor unit, launched last July and manufactured in the Madrid factory. By 2023 a hydrogen variant of the Tre should appear.

 

 

As a result of this strategic alliance, CNH Industrial invested 250 million euros months ago to acquire 7.11% of Nikola Motor. A stake that is now worth nearly $ 1.6 billion.

NOT EVERYTHING IS GOLD WHICH SHINES: DYSON'S FIASCO
World famous and billionaire thanks to his vacuum cleaners, the British Sir James Dyson invested almost 600 million of his fortune in a project to make an electric SUV capable of traveling up to 950 kilometers with a single recharge. The story started in 2014 and the project has eaten € 2.8 billion before being closed after failing to find a partner to industrialize a car that was ready in mid-2019.

 

 

Under these conditions, the profitability of the initiative was a pipe dream that threatened Dyson's other businesses, since each car would have had to have been sold for almost 170,000 euros to balance the cost of production.