NIKOLA SHARPENS FOCUS, REDUCES CASH SPEND

HYLA hydrogen energy business making strong progress with multiple partnerships, first-mover infrastructure advantage

 Nikola Corporation (Nasdaq: NKLA), zero-emissions transportation and energy supply and infrastructure solutions, via the HYLA brand, announced a progress update on its business optimization efforts, which are expected to result in a marked decrease in cash spend and streamlining of operations.

“Nikola has initiated a more focused business plan this quarter, concentrating on North America, zero-emission truck production, and our HYLA hydrogen business,” said CEO Michael Lohscheller. “Our battery-electric truck is in the marketplace and performing well for our customers, and the hydrogen fuel cell electric truck will go into production in a matter of weeks. We are proactively managing costs and reducing expenses. We are streamlining operations, including our organizational structure, to efficiently execute our objectives.”

These actions are consistent with comments from the company’s first quarter earnings announcement, among others, including the following:

• Realigning cost structure and reducing cash use by reorganizing workforce and rationalizing spend in all areas of the business.
• Concentrating on the North American marketplace, including the planned sale of the company’s joint venture share to Iveco Group.
• Localizing the supply chain where possible, including transitioning battery manufacturing from Cypress, Calif. to the Nikola plant in Coolidge, Ariz., along with planned assembly of Bosch fuel cell power modules in Coolidge. Both actions are expected to reduce material cost of the trucks.
• Prioritizing a capital-efficient approach for the HYLA hydrogen energy infrastructure business, including a strategic partnership with Voltera to develop up to 50 hydrogen stations over the next five years.
• Focusing on launching the company’s Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell electric truck in Q3, which currently has 178 sales orders from 14 end customers.
• Optimizing production at the Coolidge, Ariz. manufacturing facility to accommodate Nikola’s battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks on one assembly line.
• Ongoing restructuring of legacy Romeo business and shut down of legacy Cypress operations.

In conjunction with these initiatives, Nikola conducted a thorough review of its organizational structure and made the difficult but strategic decision to reduce its headcount, which is expected to decrease personnel-related cash spend by more than $50M annually. The reduction affected roughly 150 team members across multiple sites who were previously supporting (in part or in full) the company’s European programs, as well as approximately 120 employees based predominately at the company’s Phoenix and Coolidge, Ariz. sites and previously announced actions from Cypress, Calif. Nikola is supporting those affected with transition assistance.

These decisions preserve 900 jobs and are intended to create a sustainable structure that matches the organization’s focus and positions the company for future growth. 

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