General Motors (GM) has announced this morning it will no longer be an investor in troubled electric truck maker Nikola Motors.
The announcement Monday confirmed what most people thought would happen after months of controversies piled up again Nikola Motors and its former executive chairman and founder, Trevor Milton.
According to the terms of the original deal, GM was to provide its Ultium battery technology to help Nikola Motors develop their Badger pickup truck. In exchange, Nikola was set to hand over $2 billion in stock to GM, and also partner to develop their semi trucks.
In a revised Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) published Monday, GM said it will no longer be taking a stake in Nikola. Additionally, the two companies will not work together to produce the Badger, effectively killing the electric pickup truck before a prototype was even produced.
GM will still provide Nikola Motors with their Hydrotec fuel-cell technology for their commercial semi trucks.
The original deal between GM and Nikola got off to a rocky start when a report from Hindenburg Research alleged massive fraud, questioning whether the company had any proprietary technology at all. The allegations, which received a very weak rebuttal from Nikola, and eventually lead to Milton resigning from the company on September 21, 2020.
Shares of Nikola (NKLA) were down more than 25% after the announcement, while shares of GM dropped 2%.
