Nikola Motors recently held its first earnings call as a public company and it makes for grim, although not unexpected, reading.
Nikola went public on June 4 after a reverse merger with VectoIQ, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAQ) headed by former General Motors vice chairman Stephen Girsky. The company’s shares reached an intraday high of $93.99 on June 9 but have steadily declined since then and were sitting at $36.30 at the time of writing.
During its earnings call, Nikola reported $36,000 in revenue in the second quarter related to the installation of solar systems for executive chairman and founder Trevor Milton.
“During the three months ended June 30, 2020 and 2019 the Company recorded solar revenues of $0.03 million and $0.04 million, respectively, for the provision of solar installation services to the Executive Chairman, which are billed on time and materials basis,” the company said.
The earnings call spooked investors with the company’s shares quickly dropping by roughly 10 per cent.
However, as CNBC reports, Nikola said in June when it went public that it did not expect to generate real revenue until 2021.
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In a bid to restore confidence in the company, Milton spoke with CNBC shortly after the earnings.
“We’re a pre-revenue company. We told everyone from the beginning of the year, look, give us until the end of this year,” he said. “People want us to be Tesla in our first three weeks. … That’s not going to happen.”
Milton went on to add Nikola has plans to start production of its hydrogen fuel-cell semi-truck next year and has a manufacturing partnership with a big OEM for its upcoming Badger pickup that will be offered in hydrogen and all-electric forms.
