Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty over previous fraudulent statements to pump company stock
Former CEO and founder of Nikola Motors Trevor Milton has been found guilty on three of four counts of fraud in federal court today. Milton was charged with two counts of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud, pertaining to statements he made while he was acting chairman and CEO of Nikola.
Although Nikola Corporation, fka Nikola Motor Company, has nothing to do with the news of today’s conviction, it must be mentioned because of the pivotal role it plays in the Trevor Milton saga that has led to his guilty verdicts.
Before going public, the original iteration of the ZEV startup founded by Milton came out swinging, promising several hydrogen-fueled, Class 8 semi trucks to battle the likes of Tesla. The company also introduced a hydrogen-electric pickup truck called that Badger that would be produced with the help of GM.
Things truly started to get “interesting” when then Milton became a billionaire by taking Nikola public through a SPAC merger, following several bold claims about the company’s tremendous progress, causing its stock to hockey stick up to over $90 per share.
However, the Nikola cash rocket was quickly grounded after a report from notorious short-seller Hindenburg Research made several allegations that exposed deception by Nikola and Milton. It included several claims corroborated in previous reports from both Electrek and Bloomberg. Nikola issued a response to those claims, but the statement lacked any rebuttal of the main allegations of deception by the company and Milton.
A key focus of deception in the report was a substantial claim that Nikola staged the first video of its hydrogen truck driving by simply rolling it down a hill. The company eventually admitted to the ruse, albeit without an apology, claiming the deception was “fair game” due to a technicality.
Milton ended up leaving the company shortly thereafter as public pressure started to increase. The US Department of Justice as well as the SEC soon opened separate investigations into Milton’s actions (or lack thereof) and he was inevitably indicted by a grand jury over the aforementioned false claims.
Until today, Milton has been chest deep in litigation on a $100 million bail. Nikola Corporation on the other hand, cooperated with the SEC in order to move on from Milton, paying a $125 million settlement agreement and refocusing on actually delivering electric vehicles, a feat Trevor Milton never accomplished during his sprint to the bank.
Nikola issued a statement in regard to the court’s decision today, stating:
We appreciate the court’s and jury’s attention to this matter. It is important to remember that this trial was related to statements that Mr. Milton made, several years ago. Neither the prosecutors nor Mr. Milton questioned the Company’s promising future and unique ability to positively transform the commercial transportation industry.At Nikola, we are pleased to close this chapter and focus on executing on our strategy and achieving critical milestones. With our vehicles in production and in the hands of customers, along with the energy infrastructure well on its way to support them, the Company is making meaningful contributions toward cleaning up one of the world’s most polluting industries. Nikola and its dedicated team continue to work relentlessly towards real long-term value for its shareholders as we work to create a cleaner and healthier planet for future generations.
Milton still owns Nikola stock, but that is the only tie that currently exists between him and the current version of automaker, which is still working to claw its reputation out of the hole its former CEO dug for it. Milton was facing up to 25 years in prison if he were convicted on all four counts of fraud. Now that he has been found guilty of three, we will need to see what his sentence ends up being.
Electrek’s Take
Oil may no longer be necessary in electric vehicles, but there is still some snake oil going around in the industry. Milton’s counts of guilty should come as no surprise to anyone since much of the evidence against him was quite public and abundant – one of the downsides of publicly pumping your company for profit. Stock is only down 3% aftermarket today, again providing evidence that many saw this coming.
What we may not see coming however is the next Trevor Milton, and it’s a safe bet that person is out there somewhere. We promote a lot of young and upcoming startups at Electrek for the good of EV adoption, and the cold truth of it is that many won’t pan out.
Funding and scale are usually the death weapons, but there are plenty of bad actors out there looking to capitalize off investors excited about EVs, who are looking to invest in a company that will “become the next Tesla.” How many times have we heard that statement, right?
We still believe that charlatans like Milton are the exception and not the rule, but it’s important that he was caught and is held accountable because there are other CEOs or EV startups lurking, waiting for an opportunity to exaggerate their EV tech and make a quick buck off it. Hopefully those frauds will see Milton dressed in orange and think twice.
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National Grid Renewables has broken ground on its 100 MW Apple River Solar Project in Polk County, Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin solar farm, which will use US-made First Solar Series 6 Plus bifacial modules, will be constructed by The Boldt Company, creating 150 construction and service jobs. Apple River Solar will generate over $36 million in direct economic benefits over its first 20 years.
Once it comes online in late 2025, Apple River Solar will supply clean energy to Xcel Energy, which serves customers throughout the Upper Midwest. According to National Grid Renewables, the solar farm will generate enough energy to power around 26,000 homes annually. It will also offset about 129,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year – equivalent to taking 30,900 cars off the road.
“We are excited to see this project begin as it underscores our dedication to delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy to our customers,” said Karl Hoesly, President, Xcel Energy-Wisconsin and Michigan. “This project is an important step in those goals while bringing significant economic benefits to Polk County and the local townships.”
Electrek reported in February that Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest utility, expects to cut more than 80% – and possibly up to 88% – of its emissions by 2030, putting it on track to hit Minnesota’s goal of net zero by 2040. It also says it’s on track to achieve its clean energy goals for all the Upper Midwest states it serves – Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Michigan.
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Tesla has announced that it will finally deliver 500 kW charging as it is about to install its long-awaited V4 Supercharger cabinets.
The rollout of Supercharger V4 has been a strange one, to say the least.
Tesla has been deploying the new charging stations for two years and calling them “Supercharger V4”, but it has only been deploying the charging stalls.
Supercharger stations are made of two main parts: the stalls, which are where the charging cable is located, and the cabinets, which are generally located further back and include all the power electronics.
For all these new “Supercharger V4”, Tesla was actually using Supercharger V3 cabinets. This has been limiting the power output of the charging stations to 250 kW – although
Today, Tesla officially announced its “V4 Cabinet”, which the automaker claims will enable of “delivering up to 500kW for cars and 1.2MW for Semi.”
Here are the main features of the V4 Cabinet as per Tesla:
- Faster charging: Supports 400V-1000V vehicle architectures, including 30% faster charging for Cybertruck. S3XY vehicles enjoy 250kW charge rates they already experience on V3 Cabinet — charging up to 200 miles in 15 minutes.
- Faster deployments: V4 Cabinet powers 8 posts, 2X the stalls per cabinet. Lower footprint and complexity = more sites coming online faster.
- Next-generation hardware: Cutting-edge power electronics designed to be the most reliable on the planet, with 3X power density enabling higher throughput with lower costs.
Tesla reports that its first sites with the new V4 Cabinets are going into permitting now. The company expects its first sites to open next year.
We recently reported about Tesla’s new Oasis Supercharger project, which includes larger solar arrays and battery packs to operate the charging station mostly off-grid.
Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to all Supercharger stations, and Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.
While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.
Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:
It took about 8 years, but it sounds like the pieces are now getting actually in place with Supercharger V4, Megapacks, and this new Oasis project.
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Hyundai has a new secret weapon it’s about ready to unleash. To revamp the brand in China and counter BYD’s surge, Hyundai is launching a new AI-powered EV next year. The new model will be Hyundai’s first dedicated electric car for the world’s largest EV market.
With the help of Haomo, a Chinese autonomous startup, Hyundai will launch its first EV equipped with generative AI. It will also be its first model designed specifically for China.
A Hyundai Motor official said (via The Korea Herald) the company is “working to load the software” onto the new EV model, “which will be released in the Chinese market next year.” The spokesperson added, “The level of autonomous driving is somewhere between 2 and 2.5.”
In comparison, Tesla’s Autopilot is considered a level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) on the SAE scale (0 to 5), meaning it offers limited hands-free features.
With Autopilot, you still have to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel, or the system will notify you and eventually disengage.
Haomo’s system, DriveGPT, unveiled last spring, takes inspiration from the OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT.
The system can continuously update in real-time to optimize decision-making by absorbing traffic data patterns. According to Haomo, DriveGPT is used in around 20 models as it looks to play a bigger role in China.
Hyundai hopes new AI-powered EV boosts sales in China
Electric vehicle sales continue surging in China. According to Rho Motion, China set another EV sales record last month with 1.2 million units sold, up 50% from October 2023.
Over 8.4 million EVs were sold in China in the first ten months of 2024, a notable 38% increase from last year.
BYD continues to dominate its home market. According to Autovista24, BYD accounted for 32.9% of all PHEV and EV (NEV) sales in China through September, with over half of the top 20 best-selling EV models.
Tesla was second with a 6.5% share of the market, but keep in mind these numbers only include plug-in models (PHEV).
Like most foreign automakers, Hyundai is struggling to keep up with the influx of low-cost electric models in China. Beijing Hyundai’s sales have been slipping since 2017. Through September, Korean automaker’s share of the Chinese market fell to just 1.2%.
Last month, Hyundai opened its first overseas digital R&D center in China to help kick off its return to the region.
According to local reports, Hyundai is partnering with other local tech companies like Thundersoft, a smart cockpit provider, and others in China to power up its next-gen EVs
With its first AI-powered EV launching next year, Hyundai hopes to turn things around in the region quickly. The new model will be one of five to launch in China through 2026.
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