Without selling a single vehicle, Nikola has already surpassed Ford on the stock market

Since June 3, a new label has emerged in discussions about electric vehicles. The company specializing in electric trucks and pick-ups Nikola (a reference to Nikola Tesla, just like the name of … Tesla) went public and ended its day with a capitalization of $ 12 billion [10,6 milliards d’euros]. The next day, she still doubled this staggering sum, worth according to the markets about 30 billion dollars [26,4 milliards d’euros].

This puts Nikola in front of some historic automakers, including Ford, capitalized at $ 28.8 billion. And this despite Nikola’s small originality: created in 2014, the company has never sold a single vehicle.

Nikola’s innovation is to use hydrogen rather than electric batteries. A daring bet since there is currently almost no infrastructure to recharge hydrogen vehicles.

Despite this, the company believes that hydrogen has more interest in the context of use for freight. Trucks need to travel long distances and survey recurring and planned routes. It is therefore easier to know where to place hydrogen stations. The company wants to build this infrastructure itself.

Risky strategy

Unlike hydrogen, electric batteries take a long time to recharge and are very heavy, which is wasting both time and space that could be occupied by cargo. But betting on hydrogen, despite its advantages, is an extremely risky strategy that will pay off (if it works) only in several years.

Nikola claims to have already received the equivalent of 10 billion dollars in pre-orders and that she will start generating a profit from next year by selling battery trucks, while being able to set up her hydrogen vehicles.

Another decision that delighted the market was the company’s announcement of the production of the Badger, a pick-up intended for the general public, the most profitable segment of the automobile market at the moment. The vehicle is fitted with an electric battery and, optionally, a hydrogen range extender, which would increase the distance possible to travel without recharging to 965 kilometers.

Nikola does not only win over her individual promises. The company benefits from a fundamental trend in the financial markets, which increasingly abandon traditional automobile companies for their alternative competitors, including the most experimental.

In one year, the actions of Tesla or the Chinese manufacturer NIO have more than doubled, while Ford or General Motors are sinking, in particular because of the consequences of the Covid-19 crisis on the industry.

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