One other Nikola truck has caught on hearth in Phoenix at present. It’s the fourth hearth incident involving Nikola vehicles in just some months – but the corporate insists they’re secure to drive.

In June, the Phoenix hearth division confirmed that 5 Nikola semi-trucks caught hearth at its headquarters.

The state of affairs was fairly unusual as the corporate was fast to inform the general public it believed “foul play” was concerned within the hearth, nevertheless it didn’t have loads of proof to again the declare. It solely talked about {that a} automobile was noticed on the scene earlier than the fireplace.

We had been suspicious of the state of affairs as we realized from inside sources that Nikola had a serious battery defect within the modules produced by Romeo, a battery provider it acquired final 12 months.

Final month, Nikola ended up recalling all 209 BEV vehicles that it had produced over a battery defect.

On the time, the corporate refused to utterly disavow its declare of “foul play” however acknowledged {that a} coolant leak was “the possible explanation for the truck hearth” with out being utterly certain.

On the similar time, the corporate disclosed a second battery hearth incident. Earlier this week, one other Nikola truck hearth was reported by Arizona Lithium at its facility in Tempe.

Immediately, a fourth hearth incident occurred, as soon as once more going down at Nikola’s HQ in Phoenix.

Neighbors of the power contacted Electrek to inform us {that a} Nikola truck was visibly on hearth on the facility.

We contacted Nikola in regards to the incident, and the corporate launched this assertion that downplayed the incident as involving an “engineering validation battery-electric truck.”

On Friday September 8 at roughly 8:30 am, there was a thermal incident with one engineering validation battery-electric truck close to Nikola’s Phoenix headquarters. Nobody was injured. This pre-production truck was exterior and present process battery hearth investigation and testing. We thank the Phoenix first responders for his or her fast motion. We’ll share extra data as we be taught extra.

If our depend is correct, that’s now 4 separate hearth incidents involving Nikola vehicles in as many months and eight vehicles in whole being concerned.

That’s fairly an issue when there are solely about 200 automobiles on the street.

Nikola’s inventory was down by as a lot as 15% at present following the information. It now trades below $1.00 a share.

Electrek’s Take

When you have been following me on X, you would possibly know that I predicted that that is doubtless the tip of Nikola.

The one approach I noticed them surviving that is if they’d deal with the recall completely, and it appears to be like like that’s removed from the case.

The recall discover asks house owners to depart the automotive exterior to “get higher connectivity for over-the-air updates” and never as a result of the automobiles are prone to catching on hearth:

That is ridiculous. The recall paperwork on NHTSA’s web site haven’t been up to date for the reason that final two incidents.

I hope the company is throughout this as a result of it appears to be like to me like Nikola is extra involved with its plunging inventory value than with the protection issues that include its vehicles catching on hearth.

Lastly, I hope it’s clear to the market that this isn’t a sign that zero-emission vehicles don’t work. It’s simply an instance of a poorly managed firm.