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Comment by adamsch | Hacker News Reader

The whole company looks a bit shady to me. The claims, the name, the renders, no legal entity named, no info on founders/advisors/investors on the website or LinkedIn, etc.

Also, why would you redesign the cabin from scratch if what's unique is the drivetrain?

"NO COMPETITION"

"MANY TIMES CLEANER THAN DIESEL ENGINES"

"Nikola Motor Company is not currently accepting walk in visitors. After we launch the vehicles at the live press release later this year, contact numbers and locations will be provided for visits."

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The Nikola Motor Company trademark appears to be owned by a company called: BLUEGENTECH, LLC. (https://trademarks.justia.com/866/17/nikola-86617159.html)

The Nevada corporate filing for Bluegentech, LLC:

http://nvsos.gov/SOSEntitySearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=EAF...

And is apparently run by a guy named Troy A Wallin.

I hate it when companies put up a web site and then don't say the least bit about who manages the company or is involved in it in some way. Does make things look less than honest.

EDIT: I also found in an article the name of the CEO, and here is his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theofficialtrevormilton ... Not sure if there actually is a direct relationship to Bluegentech, LLC... the Nikola Motor Company from the article is described as being Salt Lake City, Utah based. Bluegentech, LLC is registered as a foreign company in Utah. (And, yes, I am just avoiding real work this morning.)

2nd EDIT: Ok there is a relationship.... another Nevada corporate filing (DHYBRID, INC.) links Troy A Wallin to Trevor Milton: http://nvsos.gov/SOSEntitySearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=QQd...

(Ah the joy of public filings)

Final EDIT: It's interesting. Going back to the original idea that the company had a fly-by-night feel. I now know that the people involved have some actual experience in their industry (at least generally). My perception of them, while still very limited, is somewhat better. I can't help but thinking that being a little more upfront about the principals would improve their first impressions... despite the name ;-)

I never understood why the so called "Impressum", the page with all the info about the company ownership/leadership, is mandatory only in Germany.

Perhaps it is because not everyone shares the Deutsche Bundesregierung's lust for making everything not prohibited compulsory.

Let them put whatever they want on their website. Let us mock them. All is well.

Also in Austria :)

> Nikola (pronounced Neek-oh-la) Motor Company (NMC), named after the famous electrical engineer Nikola Tesla, was quietly formed by Founder and CEO Trevor Milton years ago to design and manufacture electric vehicles, energy storage systems and electric vehicle drivetrain components.

Apparently they put up the website with their 3d models a few days ago.

The fact that they claim to own their own wells and liquification is pretty fishy. What kind of startup is going to have expertise in both gas extraction and electric vehicle engineering? And why on earth would they even want to when there's pretty good infrastructure for that already?

It feels like the Steorn of car companies. Or a dodgy Kickstarter. All designed to create a buzz with no real evidence of a product.

The CEO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theofficialtrevormilton

Edit: I wonder if nikola motor is a subsidiary of http://worthingtonindustries.com ?

Doesn't look like it. The CEO did sell a previous company to them, but it looks like he's started a new venture with some of the same players. I wouldn't be surprised if companies they've worked with were invested in the new venture, but the legal filings (see my other comment on this thread) suggest this is a new venture.

The technology is legit, there's nothing preventing a company from building a truck like this. There's a few things that bug me:

1) Why natural gas to run the turbine and not, say, diesel? It seems natural to run the truck on diesel, if nothing else so the driver can hang out with his friends and show it off at the local truck stop.

2) There's only renders, no photos. They haven't actually built one yet? At least that high-efficiency truck Wal-Mart was/is testing, they actually built the thing before they started crowing about it.,

In the US right now natural gas is slightly cheaper per mile than diesel. Existing truck manufacturers have already started offering NG fuel vehicles.

I wasn't aware of that.

I have no problem with making use of natural gas reserves, I just figured a diesel option would make adoption easier on truck drivers.

TIL about the high efficiency truck revolution

The answer to #1 provides some insight as to what might make this play a little more interesting. Reading into the truck page, check out this gem:

"At Nikola Motor Company, we’ve decided to invest in American energy. Nikola owns the rights to its own natural gas wells along with the Nikola One fleet that transports the natural gas from the wells to the stations. With 7 wells on a single property, Nikola can pump out millions of gallons of clean natural gas each day. Nikola plans on having more than 5 well sites for redundancy throughout the United States. Complete vertical integration removes market uncertainties and allows Nikola Motor to control its own prices and keep them that way for Nikola customers. Nikola bypasses all the gas companies, liquifies the gas on site, then delivers it to the station through its fleet of electric trucks."

The trucks appear, in part, to be a method of arbitraging future LNG prices which have been going down, and can be expected to continue to fall for the foreseeable future as more and more wells keep coming on line.

America is swimming in natural gas -- we are a net exporter. Natural gas requires nearly no refinement, and is locally produced, so the additional energy required to make it available to customers is much smaller. It also produces less CO2 per unit of energy than most other fossil fuels, since it has a very high ratio of hydrogen to carbon. When it burns, you get 2 water molecules and 1 CO2, vs say decane where you get 11 water molecules and 10 CO2.

They've apparently also beaten conservation of energy

"NEVER PLUG IN - TURBINE CHARGES BATTERIES AUTOMATICALLY WHILE DRIVING"

You know the turbine runs on CNG, yes?

Ah, wasn't clear to me at all!

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