Badger culled as GM and Nikola change plans

December 2, 2020December 11, 2020 Iain Curry 4394 Views electric pickup, electric ute, nikola badger, Nikola motor

Nikola Motor’s much-hyped Badger is likely to be culled after General Motors revealed it would no longer help engineer and manufacture the electric pickup truck.

GM and Nikola Motor had announced a strategic partnership in September to build the battery-electric (BEV) and fuel cell (FCEV) Tesla Cybertruck-rival, but a newly signed non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) replaces the original agreement.

The news follows a horrible few months for Arizona-based Nikola Motor. A highly-critical report into its business practices followed the original GM announcement; founder Trevor Milton resigned over investigations into him misleading investors, while last month we reported the Badger project would likely be canned if the GM production partnership fell through.

Nikola Badger — Goodbye, Badger, we barely knew you

The fact it now has suggests the Badger will never see the light of day. A Nikola press release said it would refund all previously submitted order deposits for the Badger.

Nikola tried to deflect the bad news by reiterating it and GM would still work together to integrate GM’s Hydrotec fuel-cell technology into Nikola’s trucks for medium- and long-haul trucking sectors.

“Heavy trucks remain our core business and we are 100% focused on hitting our development milestones to bring clean hydrogen and battery-electric commercial trucks to market,” said Mark Russell, CEO of Nikola.

Nikola admitted the Badger project had been dependent on an OEM partnership, and with GM now pulling out of its development, and the legacy car maker now no longer taking an equity stake in Nikola (which was a $2 billion 11% stake when first agreed), the Badger appears extinct.

Only partnership with another OEM, however unlikey now, could seemingly save the project.

Local interest was strong in the Nikola Badger after the startup revealed Australia was to be its first export market. It promised 675kW/1330Nm and a 0-100km/h sprint in 3-seconds, plus range of up to 965km for the FCEV version.

Nikola’s bold claims suggested it would outperform the Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian R1T and Ford’s electrified F-150. All for a cost of between US$60-$90k” ($87-130,000).

It was due to be unveiled this week at the now-cancelled Nikola World 2020 event.

While the deal breakdown is no doubt embarrassing for General Motors, at least it has the 745kW GMC Hummer EV pick-up due in late 2021. Looking at positives, with the Badger out of the picture, it’s one less rival to worry about.

Iain Curry

A motoring writer and photographer for two decades, Iain started in print magazines in London as editor of Performance BMW and features writer for BMW Car, GT Porsche and 4Drive magazines. His love of motor sport and high performance petrol cars was rudely interrupted in 2011 when he was one of the first journalists to drive BMW's 1 Series ActiveE EV, and has been testing hybrids, PHEVs and EVs for Australian newspapers ever since. Based near Noosa in Queensland, his weekly newspaper articles cover new vehicle reviews and consumer advice, while his photography is regularly seen on the pages of glossy magazines.