Lucid acquires Nikola’s factory, some assets, and offer jobs to workers
Lucid Motors has announced that it acquired some of Nikola Motor’s assets out of its bankruptcy, including its factory, and it will offer jobs to over 300 of its employees.
Nikola, a manufacturer of electric and hydrogen trucks, went bankrupt earlier this year after several tumultuous years.
Now, Lucid Motors, an electric vehicle manufacturer, has announced that it purchased some of Nikola’s assets out of a bankruptcy auction.
The company wrote in a press release:
Lucid Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: LCID), maker of the world’s most advanced electric vehicles, today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire select facilities and assets in Arizona previously belonging to Nikola Corporation, subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The transaction does not include the acquisition of Nikola’s business, customer base, or technology related to Nikola’s hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks.
In Arizona, Lucid’s Casa Grande factory, where it produces the Air and Gravity EVs, is only about 25 minutes away from Nikola’s Coolidge factory, where it used to assemble its trucks.
Lucid confirmed that it is taking over this facility and Nikola’s headquarters in nearby Phoenix:
As part of the agreement, Lucid will take over Nikola’s former Coolidge manufacturing facility (680 E Houser Rd, Coolidge, AZ), as well as the Phoenix facility (4141 E Broadway Rd, Phoenix, AZ) previously used as Nikola’s headquarters and product development center. These buildings collectively add more than 884,000 square feet to Lucid’s Arizona footprint. Most of this space is comprised of state-of-the-art manufacturing and warehousing buildings, which executes against Lucid’s prior planned expansion in Arizona. These facilities also include development equipment with extensive battery and environmental testing chambers, a full-size chassis dynamometer, machining equipment, and more.
The deal is valued at $30 million in cash and non-cash considerations.
As it takes over those facilities, Lucid plans to offer “more than 300 former Nikola employees” jobs in Arizona:
Additionally, Lucid plans to offer employment to more than 300 former Nikola employees in roles across Lucid’s Arizona facilities. These offers will encompass various technical salaried and hourly positions including manufacturing engineering, software, assembly, vehicle testing, and warehouse support as Lucid welcomes employees with strong backgrounds in EV technology and further supports its local community.
Marc Winterhoff, Interim CEO at Lucid, commented on the announcement and hinted that the new facilities and workforce would help Lucid toward bringing its next vehicle platform to production:
“As we continue our production ramp of Lucid Gravity and prepare for our upcoming midsize platform vehicles, acquiring these assets is an opportunity to strategically expand our manufacturing, warehousing, testing, and development facilities while supporting our local Arizona community. We are delighted to extend employment offers to more than 300 former employees, who bring valuable industry experience, and together with our outstanding teams, will continue powering Lucid’s industry-leading innovation.”
Lucid is mainly known for the Air, a super-efficient and long-range electric luxury sedan, and it recently launched the Gravity, an SUV based on the same platform.
Now, it plans to develop a new vehicle platform to deliver smaller and cheaper vehicles.
Electrek’s Take
This makes sense. While Lucid has a lot of operations in California, they were neighbors in Arizona when it came to manufacturing operations.
It may be able to utilize some of Nikola’s manufacturing equipment and quickly put the former Nikola workers to work, reducing the bankruptcy’s impact on local employment.
Lucid has its own financial problems as it’s not yet profitable and relies on raising more capital, but it is undoubtedly in a much more solid financial situation than Nikola has been over the last few years.
Also, $30 million in cash and non-cash considerations is pretty cheap.
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![Hackers turn Nissan LEAF into full-scale RC car, record drivers' conversations [video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/05/nissan-leaf-hacked.png?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
A team of white hat European hackers using their brains, keyboards, and a couple of bits and baubles from eBay managed to take control of a 2020 Nissan LEAF and violate just about every privacy and safety regulation in the process.
The best part: they recorded the whole thing.
Budapest-based cybersecurity experts PCAutomotive were able to exploit a number of vulnerabilities in a 2020 Nissan LEAF that enabled the white hat team to geolocate and track the car, record the texts and conversations happening inside the car, playing media back through the car’s speakers, and even (this is the genuinely terrifying dangerous part) turning the steering wheel while the car was moving. (!?)
Maybe the scariest part of this hack, however, is how seemingly easy it was to pull off by starting with a “test bench simulator” built using parts from eBay and exploiting a vulnerability in the LEAF’s DNS C2 channel and Bluetooth protocol.
The PCAutomotive team gave a hugely detailed 118-page presentation of their exploit at black hat Asia 2025, which we’ve included at the bottom of this post, in case the original link goes dead. If you’re into that sort of thing, the fun stuff starts around page 27. And, if you’re not, just know that all the vulnerabilities were disclosed to Nissan and its suppliers between 02AUG2023 and 12SEP2024 (p. 116/118), and the “attack” itself can be seen in the video below that. Enjoy!
Summary of vulnerabilities
- CVE-2025-32056 – Anti-Theft bypass
- CVE-2025-32057 – app_redbend: MiTM attack
- CVE-2025-32058 – v850: Stack Overflow in CBR processing
- CVE-2025-32059 – Stack buffer overflow leading to RCE [0]
- CVE-2025-32060 – Absence of a kernel module signature verification
- CVE-2025-32061 – Stack buffer overflow leading to RCE [1]
- CVE-2025-32062 – Stack buffer overflow leading to RCE [2]
- PCA_NISSAN_009 – Improper traffic filtration between CAN buses
- CVE-2025-32063 – Persistence for Wi-Fi network
- PCA_NISSAN_012 – Persistence through CVE-2017-7932 in HAB of i.MX 6
Remote exploitation of Nissan LEAF
Electrek’s Take
This is one of those posts that, on the bright side, does a great job explaining how a remote operator can “log in” to a vehicle and steer it out of trouble when a weird or edge-case-type situation pops up.
Unfortunately, this is also one of those posts that some of the more clueless anti-EV hysterics will point to and say, “See!? EVs can get hacked!” But the reality is that virtually any car with electric power steering (EPS), electronic throttle controls, brake-by-wire, etc. can be hacked in a similar way. But, while steering a target’s car into an oncoming semi might be a great way to pull off a covert CIA assassination, the more worrying issue here is the breach of privacy and recording – unless you want to spend some time in El Salvadoran prison, I guess.
Remember, kids: Big Brother is watching you.
SOURCE | IMAGES: black hat.
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A major new EV battery factory is being built in Sunderland, bringing 1,000 new jobs with it. AESC, Nissan’s battery partner, is behind the £1 billion ($1.33 billion) plant, which will boost the UK’s EV battery production by six times, enough to power 100,000 electric cars annually.
The 12 GWh capacity plant, AESC’s second battery plant in Sunderland, will be powered by 100% net-zero carbon energy. That big jump in capacity helps position Britain as a global player in EV manufacturing while pushing forward the country’s net-zero goals.
The investment is getting a serious financial lift from the British government. Through a combination of support from the National Wealth Fund and UK Export Finance, the project is unlocking £680 million in financing from major banks, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, SMBC Group, Societe Generale, and BBVA, that covers the construction and operation of the battery factory. Another £320 million is coming from private investment and fresh equity from AESC. On top of all that, the government’s Automotive Transformation Fund is pitching in with £150 million in grant funding.
This deal follows closely on the heels of the new UK-US trade agreement announced a day earlier, which cuts car export tariffs from 27.5% down to 10% for up to 100,000 UK-made vehicles – nearly the total number exported last year. That move could save car companies hundreds of millions of pounds and help protect good-paying jobs in manufacturing hubs like Sunderland.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves visited AESC in Sunderland, where she met with staff and local leaders to discuss what this means for the Northeast and the British car industry.
“This investment follows hot on the heels of yesterday’s landmark economic deal with the US, which will save thousands of jobs in the industry,” Reeves said.
Read more: UK unveils largest curbside EV charger installation of 6,000 ports
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It’s about the future of their jobs. Ford workers at two plants in western Germany are set to go on strike on Wednesday, their works council chief said on Monday.
Ford is facing a worker strike in Germany
In November, Ford announced it would cut around 4,000 jobs in Europe by 2027 as part of a restructuring, primarily in Germany and the UK. That’s still about 14% of its European workforce.
The American automaker said the move comes after it has incurred “significant losses” in recent years and a “highly disruptive market” with new EVs quickly gaining market share.
Ford blamed slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles and a weak economic situation. It also plans to slow production at its Cologne EV plant, where the electric Explorer and Capri are built.
Last week, IG Metall members voted in favor of “industrial action” with 93.5% of votes in favor of a strike. “Ford must act now—otherwise, we will go through with it,” said Kerstin D. Klein, Chief Representative of IG Metall Cologne-Leverkusen.
Ford is facing an influx of new competition, including Chinese EV makers like BYD. BYD’s overseas sales are surging with a fifth straight month of growth in April.
BYD even outsold Tesla in Germany last month, with 1,566 vehicles registered. In comparison, Tesla had just 855, and Ford saw 9,534 registrations.
On top of this, Ford, like most of the industry, is preparing for more disruption with Trump’s auto tariffs. After releasing Q1 earnings last week, Ford warned that the tariffs could cost up to $2.5 billion this year.
During Ford’s earnings call, CFO Sherry House said that recent EV launches in Europe, including the Explorer, Capri, and Puma Gen-E, helped more than double Model e’s wholesale volume in Q1.
After early success in the US, Ford also launched its “Power Promise” promotion in Europe, offering EV buyers a free home charger and several other perks.
Source: Reuters
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