this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago

Surprised they’re even still around after the CEO got arrested

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I guess I’ve been under a rock, but I hadn’t heard of this company until now. Did they really name themselves Nikola Motor? Were they expecting to be bought out by Tesla or something? This would be like me opening a store called George next to an existing store called Washington. Weird.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think they thought they could be the "true Tesla" to rival the "Edison" thief or mangler of ideas that the company named Tesla is or, at least appears to be*.

Ironically, that seems to have been the only truly good idea they've had.

* For legal reasons this is a hypothetical opinion I believe, in some form, might have belonged to the founder(s) of Nikola Motor, and says nothing of my own ~~disappointment~~ opinion.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago

I love that Edison Motors jokes that they chose their name because "we stole Tesla's idea and made it better"

.

For those that hadn't heard of them, Edison Motors is building electric (and hybrid) semi trucks after putting down a deposit of Tesla's semi truck and not seeing any follow-up in more than 3 years.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I was initially getting them confused with Edison, who actually have a viable product.

it is estimated that each truck costs Nikola over $1 million to manufacture, while the revenue stands at $380,000. This is not a sustainable business model for obvious reasons.

Fucking hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are a scam. They're expensive to build, expensive to run, explode if the tank is punctured, and refuelling them is a massively complex endeavor, if you can even find a station.

There is no application for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles that either a hybrid running on biofuel or an EV can't do better and cheaper.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Capitalists will do anything but electrified trains

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

Trains from every factory to the end consumers might be a bit project

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Are they even selling a product yet?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I guess there's a market for truck-sized soapbox cars.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yes, they're just taking a half a million dollar loss on every vehicle they sell.