[TusharK]

Nikola Corp. completed a merger with VectorIQ Acquisition Corp. on June 2, 2020. Since announcing the planned reverse merger, the company's share prices have gone up by almost 612%. At the end of the day on June 2, Nikola's share price was US$ 33.75 with a market cap of US$ 12 billion.



Nikola was founded by Trevor Milton in 2016. The company is focusing on building hydrogen fuel cell powered trucks. It plans to build a pick-up truck and an 18-wheeler semi.

Earlier, Milton had tweeted plans to debut the Badger truck and open bookings. This announcement by the founder has had a positive impact on the company's share price as well. Currently, Nikola Corp. shares are trading at US$ 73.27.

Nikola's main rival Tesla is also building an all-electric semi truck.

Source

Link to Team-BHP News

[Nikhildrao]

Competition breeds excellency but it would be rather funny if they merged with Tesla(excuse the dad joke) god speed Nicola

[turbo]

Originally Posted by TusharK

The company is focusing on building hydrogen fuel cell powered trucks. It plans to build a pick-up truck and an 18-wheeler semi.

Finally!!!!! Fuel of the Future is here.
No more charging your car overnight, like a mobile phone. No more degrading batteries, like a mobile phone.
No more range anxiety, like a electric car.
No more 3 hour charge time, like an electric car.

No more emissions, like a combustion engine.

This is the future. Tesla will be remembered as merely a disruptor.

[sri_tesla]

Originally Posted by turbo

Finally!!!!! Fuel of the Future is here.
No more charging your car overnight, like a mobile phone. No more degrading batteries, like a mobile phone.
No more range anxiety, like an electric car.
No more 3 hour charge time, like an electric car.

This is the future. Tesla will be remembered as merely a disruptor.

I am not sure if you are serious or mocking the Hydrogen technology. Let's assume you are being serious.

Hydrogen is definitely not the future of transportation.

• Production, transmission, and infrastructure of Hydrogen are much more expensive than electric vehicles. Hydrogen vehicles need 3 to 4 times more electricity than EVs to travel the same distance.

• There is more range anxiety for hydrogen vehicles than electric vehicles due to lack of infrastructure.

• Hydrogen vehicles are also much more expensive and have worse performance than EVs.

• EVs do not need 3 hours to charge. Tesla Model 3 can give travel more than 200 km with 10 mins of charge and can go 400 km with a half-hour charge. Other EVs like Porsche Taycan with 800v system can charge 0 to 80% in 20 minutes. Hyundai/Kia also using these 800v systems for their upcoming EVs.

• Major Hydrogen vehicle maker Toyota will sell more EVs in a month than the sales of Mirai Hydrogen vehicle in its life-time by next year.

Tesla may or may not be the future, but EVs will be the future of transportation and not hydrogen vehicles.

Nikola's share price growth shows how much the stock markets are overvalued now. It's valued more than Ford or FCA and almost close to GM without a single product on the road or even a proper prototype. Tesla shares also insanely overvalued currently but at least it has produced 4 vehicles and with Model 3 being the best selling EV in many countries.

[turbo]

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

I am not sure if you are serious or mocking the Hydrogen technology. Let's assume you are being serious.

Hydrogen is definitely not the future of transportation.

• Production, transmission, and infrastructure of Hydrogen are much more expensive than electric vehicles. Hydrogen vehicles need 3 to 4 times more electricity than EVs to travel the same distance.

• There is more range anxiety for hydrogen vehicles than electric vehicles due to lack of infrastructure.

• Hydrogen vehicles are also much more expensive and have worse performance than EVs.

• EVs do not need 3 hours to charge. Tesla Model 3 can give travel more than 200 km with 10 mins of charge and can go 400 km with a half-hour charge. Other EVs like Porsche Taycan with 800v system can charge 0 to 80% in 20 minutes. Hyundai/Kia also using these 800v systems for their upcoming EVs.

• Major Hydrogen vehicle maker Toyota will sell more EVs in a month than the sales of Mirai Hydrogen vehicle in its life-time by next year.

Tesla may or may not be the future, but EVs will be the future of transportation and not hydrogen vehicles.

Nikola's share price growth shows how much the stock markets are overvalued now. It's valued more than Ford or FCA and almost close to GM without a single product on the road or even a proper prototype. Tesla shares also insanely overvalued currently but at least it has produced 4 vehicles and with Model 3 being the best selling EV in many countries.

• As Hydrogen becomes more mainstream, the cost of production of Hydrogen will go down. Hydrogen is the most abundant matter in the Universe.

• The infrastructure will, obviously, grow. And grow fast.

• More expensive? Really? Nikola Truck is $ 60K to $90K. The Cybertruck is 70K. Model S is a 100K.

• EVs do not need 3 hours to charge. Correct. If you do it at a supercharger. But then the battery degrades even faster. And nobody has a supercharger installed at their home anyway.

Nikola's stock climbed because they announced that their first product will be launched on 23rd of June. 2 weeks from now. Its not that people ran out of stock to buy, and thought, "hmmm, this looks interesting, lets pick this up"

EVs are not the future. Most people will prefer having the ability top top up hydrogen in 2 minutes, rather than wait hours to charge their EV.

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by turbo

Finally!!!!! Fuel of the Future is here.

Hydrogen is the fuel fo the future and always will be the future of fuel.

1. No one has superchargers at home, but no one drives 300km daily. Superchargers are used for once or twice road trips done in an year.
2. Cybertruck starts at 39k$.
3. If Nikola and Milton thinks Hydrogen is the future why he launched electric semi after seeing Tesla semi. Where are his nikola one prototypes.
4. Let's not compare cars of different class let's compare the prices of Toyota Mirai and Model 3, though Model 3 is superior in all aspects.
5. Why Mercedes , Hyundai and Honda stopped research and development of Hydrogen.
6. Hydrogen may be the most abundant but the most volatile. Did you see the huge blasts in Norway and UK causing huge disruption to the Highway traffic.
7. I even not talking about infrastructure. Mirai efficiency at 125km/1kg and 1 kg H2 around 14$ costs lot more to run (more than ICE cars) than the electric car.
8. You cannot refill H2 at your home, office, hotel or anywhere you have to go to a fuelling station.

What is the problem with overnight charging when you are sleeping or at office when you are working. With how cheap the renewable energy is now you may get paid for driving an electric car(recently household users in UK are paid to consume surplus electricity).

You are talking about infrastructure problem with current Fuel cell cars what happens when every petrol pump was converted to a charging station.

There is very less time remaining for H2 to prove as a technology, before the 1 million mile batteries and even ships start converting to electric. Hydrogen and with it Toyota(and their BS self charging cars) lost the game to electric big time in surface transport.

[Sran]

Originally Posted by turbo

Finally!!!!! Fuel of the Future is here.
No more charging your car overnight, like a mobile phone. No more degrading batteries, like a mobile phone.
No more range anxiety, like a electric car.
No more 3 hour charge time, like an electric car.

No more emissions, like a combustion engine.

Nope, just the combustion of humans and vehicles as they are a bomb. Imagine EV's and Hydrogen vehicle, who would one prefer to be in, during fire?

[speedingmenace]

Hydrogen is most definitely the fuel of the future but is still a long way away for passenger cars. BEV is more convenient at present for adoption.
For commercial vehicles where higher payload capacity equals higher profits, fuel cells are very attractive alternative to fossil fuels rather than BEV. The energy density of hydrogen is couple of hundred times that of Li ion batteries, 1kg of compressed hydrogen gas has a power of 40000 kwh where as the equivalent battery has only 250kwh. Making it an excellent energy storage for higher load applications.
This year Companies like Daimler and Volvo have partnered to develop fuel cell trucks, the tech will eventually flow into passenger vehicle segments.

[GutsyGibbon]

Originally Posted by sri_tesla

I am not sure if you are serious or mocking the Hydrogen technology. Let's assume you are being serious. Hydrogen is definitely not the future of transportation.

I appreciate you being one of the voices for EV adoption. Some of the myths around EV, and myths around hydrogen never seem to fade away.
One can choose to look at hard facts for both FCEV and EVs in markets where both cars are being sold for several years. Compare Mirai adoption since 2014, & Tesla for the same time period. One would think Toyota would have sorted out all the kinks by now. But, no, there are some 37 filling stations in all of California and they have sold ~10k cars in all these years. Model 3 sold ~ 200k in 2019 alone. I just dont see how they can scale and stay relevant in the future.

Nobody I know has even considered a Mirai, and I have not met a single Mirai owner in all these years. Contrary to that, most of my friends who can afford, have bought a Model3 in the last 2.5 years. I am yet to spend a dime on my Model 3 (servicing and fuel). I would not accept a Mirai as a free gift. I like to have a car sitting in my garage, that has been topped off in the morning ready to go for the full range. If not a Tesla, it has to be another EV that can be offset by my home solar credits. It is a no-brainer, more so for CA residents.

[SmartCat]

This is getting silly now. I just read the article properly - it says Nikola debuted at $33.75 per share or $12 billion marketcap. But it is currently trading at $73.27.

That means Nikola (zero revenues, by the way) is being valued at $26 billion! In good old days of Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett, to be valued at $26 billion, a company should have made a profit of atleast $2 billion.

[gthang]

Originally Posted by SKC-auto

There is very less time remaining for H2 to prove as a technology, before the 1 million mile batteries and even ships start converting to electric. Hydrogen and with it Toyota(and their BS self charging cars) lost the game to electric big time in surface transport.

With less than 5% global market share and sustainability of Lithium an issue, isn't it a little early in the game to blow the whistle?

Another win for the Hype world.

Cheers

[SKC-auto]

Originally Posted by speedingmenace

The energy density of hydrogen is couple of hundred times that of Li ion batteries, 1kg of compressed hydrogen gas has a power of 40000 kwh where as the equivalent battery has only 250kwh. Making it an excellent energy storage for higher load applications.

I think you meant to say 40kwh and 0.25kwh. The problem with the current technology you require 40kwh of electricity for electrolysis to create 1kg of hydrogen.

If lots of research money is put in next 10 years and some how reduce the electricity used to produce 1kg hydrogen to 20kwh. By the same time batteries may cost less than 50$ per kWh and EVs cheaper than ICE cars.

Originally Posted by gthang

With less than 5% global market share and sustainability of Lithium an issue, isn't it a little early in the game to blow the whistle?

Another win for the Hype world.

Cheers

Agreed it's early to blow the whistle, but it's becoming quite obvious the future is electric for surface transport and not Hydrogen fuel cell.

The whole country(Japan) and it's most prominent companies Honda and Toyota where trumpeting all these days about H2 fuel cell and used every forum to inhibit doubts on EV. Particularly Toyota what is their so called self charging hybrid if not pure BS. Now Toyota is launching more EVs than their FC cars only because of China.

[ZenMaster]

To say that H2 is THE FUEL OF THE FUTURE will be an overstatement.

To say that H2 will never take off is also an overstatement.

Both will play a role in transportation models that can use them most efficiently. Maybe one more popular that the other.

The problem with H2 is production. Electrolysis is extremely inefficient for producing H2 at a Global scale for consumption. It is good for labs and for a company that can turn it into a Value added product profitably.

In all other cases, H2 for industrial use is currently made from Alcohols and fossil fuels(mostly). But a good fuel cell system and a sustainable source of fuel source can actually make it more efficient and sustainable than electricity produced from Coal/Gas power plants can ever be.

H2 will be a great fuel for places where proper power infrastructure are not viable and for stationary power generations sources. (Maybe you'll have a Hydrogen FC Generator instead of and diesel engine generator in the future.)

Electric Cars are taking off because of increased environmental awareness, Coolness , and Tesla showing the world that electric cars can be fun and need not be Glorifies Golfcarts.

What's holding back Hydrogen power is the same thing that was holding back Electric Cars until Elon Musk came about and shocked the world disrupted the market

Lack of Public Demand, Support from the Govt. And most of all LACK OF FUNDING for R&D.

I'm sure if Elon Musk had decided to make Hydrogen FC Cars, everyone driving an electric Tesla would have been driving a HFC Tesla.

Until he revealed the Model S, both Electric and Hydrogen Vehicles were in the same boat. But he "supercharged" the electric vehicles industry and drove public demand & created an Brand Image in a way no one had ever seen.

It's just like two actors of similar caliber who were in the same level and one got a big break in a blockbuster movie, quickly rose to the stars and became an A list celebrity while the other one is still starring in B movies.

The Magic pill for making any tech. Mainstream is FUNDING.

Simply speaking, H2 cars is not going to abke to compete with Electric Cars unless people put Money where there Mouth is.

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by turbo

• As Hydrogen becomes more mainstream, the cost of production of Hydrogen will go down. Hydrogen is the most abundant matter in the Universe.

• The infrastructure will, obviously, grow. And grow fast.

• More expensive? Really? Nikola Truck is $ 60K to $90K. The Cybertruck is 70K. Model S is a 100K.

• EVs do not need 3 hours to charge. Correct. If you do it at a supercharger. But then the battery degrades even faster. And nobody has a supercharger installed at their home anyway.

Nikola's stock climbed because they announced that their first product will be launched on 23rd of June. 2 weeks from now. Its not that people ran out of stock to buy, and thought, "hmmm, this looks interesting, lets pick this up"

EVs are not the future. Most people will prefer having the ability top top up hydrogen in 2 minutes, rather than wait hours to charge their EV.

Here are the reasons why hydrogen fuel won't work:

1) Most of the hydrogen presently used comes from natural gas - a fossil fuel and it requires electricity to produce this hydrogen (which in India is mostly from coal).

2) Hydrogen can be produced from water but still electricity will be required.

3) Basically hydrogen is used to store electricity instead of batteries since we use electricity to produce hydrogen and then produce electricity back from the fuel cell. But only 50% of the electricity is recovered!

4) Hydrogen is extremely combustible (remember the Hindenburg disaster?)

5) Fuel cell tech in cars hardly get 1/20th of the R&D funding as compared to battery tech. Batteries in cars are too big to fail considering how much money companies have poured into it.

6) There are far more fast charging points for cars than hydrogen stations in almost all countries.

7) The primary benefit of hydrogen is that it can be filled up quickly like petrol. But battery charging times are fast catching up (eg: Porsche Taycan with 350w charging).

8) The technology and acceptance of hydrogen fuel cell cars are way behind the battery tech.

9) The only application is in long distance buses, trucks and maybe in the distant future for airplanes.

The first three are by far the biggest problem. If you are gonna extract hydrogen from a fossil fuel using energy which is again from fossil fuel, then you might as well buy a petrol car. Also, hydrogen drivetrains are less efficient as compared to batteries, so you are losing a lot more energy (i.e electricity which is required to get the nitrogen. Charge times and lack of charging stations are the only practical problems with electric cars and it is getting fixed fast!

But again, Nikola plans to use hydrogen in Trucks which might be where hydrogen will find its use!

[Annibaddh]

Oh what a joyous read this has been. Anything that sparks this strong an opinion on either side is brilliant for cars of the future! The one thing I would wholeheartedly agree is the monstrosity of the valuation. $26B! Incredible. Big finance is the most sophisticated fraud there is.

As for cars. Earlier ICE cars were also death machines. We've come a long way in figuring out their safety. I'm sure there'll be a solution for avoiding a hydrogen bomb on the roads too. Electric or Hydrogen, my next new car won't run on oil. That is for sure.