Another established company has backed away from struggling electric truck maker Nikola, sending the latter’s stock price down by 18 percent over two days of trading. Nikola’s stock value is down more than 80 percent from its all-time peak in June.
Back in August, trash company Republic Services placed an order with Nikola for 2,500 electric garbage trucks with an option to take 5,000 more. At the time, Nikola was flying high, having just entered public markets in June. According to the Arizona Republic, the trucks were slated to have a range of 150 miles and capacity for 1,200 cans of garbage.
The garbage trucks were supposed to be variants of the Nikola Tre, a battery electric truck that Nikola is building with help from Italian truckmaker Iveco. Testing of the garbage trucks was supposed to begin in 2022, with the first trucks delivered a year later.