A battery-electric Nikola Tre semitruck. Nikola is remembering all of the battery-electric Tres to fix a defect in their battery loads that might begin a fire. Five battery-electric Tres were damaged in a fire at Nikola’s head office in June 2023.
Courtesy: Nikola
Shares of electrical truck maker Nikola opened greatly lower Monday after the business revealed a recall of all the battery-electric semitrucks it has actually made to date– 209 in overall– after an examination into a current fire discovered a defect.
Shares were down about 11% in mid-morning trading Monday to approximately $1.75 each.
The remembers do not impact Nikola’s most current design, a semitruck powered by a hydrogen fuel cell. Production of the fuel cell trucks started last month.
Nikola stated late Friday that a third-party examination discovered that a coolant leakage inside a battery pack was most likely accountable for a fire in a truck parked at the business’s Phoenix head office on June23 That fire infect other close-by trucks, damaging 5.
Nikola had actually initially believed that the trucks were intentionally set on fire in an act of vandalism. It now thinks that “foul play or other external factors were unlikely to have caused the incident,” it stated in its Friday night declaration.
A 2nd truck utilized by the business’s engineering group had a comparable battery-pack breakdown onAug 10, though the issue was captured prior to it ended up being a significant fire, Nikola stated.
Following the third-party report, Nikola’s own engineers figured out that a part in the battery pack, made by an outdoors provider, is the most likely offender. It anticipates to have a repair work offered quickly.
The business is stopping sales of its battery-electric trucks till the repair work is offered.
Nikola is from another location keeping an eye on all of its battery-electric trucks for indications of a comparable flaw. Although the business stated it thinks the threat is low– just 2 battery loads out of over 3,100 made have had the issue, it kept in mind– it encouraged operators that while they can continue to utilize the trucks, the trucks ought to be parked outside till the repair work is made.
