General Motors has taken an 11% ownership stake in fuel cell vehicle developer Nikola and also gained the right to nominate one director.
According to the companies, the strategic partnership will initially focus on Nikola’s Badger pickup truck, but will also affect its other projects including the Tre, One, Two and NZT. A key facet of the partnership is that Nikola will utilize General Motors’ Ultium battery system and Hydrotec fuel cell technology, representing an important commercialization milestone for General Motors.
“Nikola is one of the most innovative companies in the world. General Motors is one of the top engineering and manufacturing companies in the world. You couldn’t dream of a better partnership than this,” commented Nikola founder and executive chairman Trevor Milton.
“By joining together, we get access to their validated parts for all of our programs, General Motors’ Ultium battery technology and a multi-billion dollar fuel cell program ready for production. Nikola immediately gets decades of supplier and manufacturing knowledge, validated and tested production-ready EV propulsion, world-class engineering and investor confidence. Most importantly, General Motors has a vested interest to see Nikola succeed. We made three promises to our stakeholders and have now fulfilled two out of three promises ahead of schedule. What an exciting announcement.”
From GM’s perspective, General Motors chairman and CEO Mary Barra explained, “This strategic partnership with Nikola, an industry leading disrupter, continues the broader deployment of General Motors’ all-new Ultium battery and Hydrotec fuel cell systems. We are growing our presence in multiple high-volume EV segments while building scale to lower battery and fuel cell costs and increase profitability. In addition, applying General Motors’ electrified technology solutions to the heavy-duty class of commercial vehicles is another important step in fulfilling our vision of a zero-emissions future.”