Nikola, a Tesla Rival Making Hydrogen-Powered Trucks, Is Going Public

Story by Sissi Cao | www.observer.com
Nikola Corporation, a five-year-old electric vehicle startup whose name shares the same origin as Elon Musk’s Tesla (Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla) but makes a starkly different product—cars that run on hydrogen fuel cells rather than lithium-ion batteries—is slated to go public on NASDAQ, the company announced Tuesday.

Nikola will make its market debut through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition entity called VectoIQ Acquisition Corp in a deal valued at $3.3 billion. (The IPO structure is similar to that of space tourism startup Virgin Galactic last October.) The combined company will keep the name “Nikola Corporation” and be traded under the ticker symbol “NKLA.”

Nikola was most recently valued at $3 billion after raising a series D round led by European heavy-duty auto maker CNH Industrial. As part of the merger with VectoIQ, the company will receive $525 million in fresh equity funding from outside institutional investors, including Fidelity Management & Research Company, ValueAct Spring Fund and P. Schoenfeld Asset Management. Nikola said the investment will be used to expand its portfolio of vehicles build out a hydrogen charging station network in the U.S., a main bottleneck in commercializing hydrogen-powered vehicles.

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