More Bad News For Nikola: Why Another Electric Truck Deal Hit A Dead End

Nikola (NKLA) has hit another speed bump in its venture to produce electric trucks.

The EV truck maker discontinued a partnership with Republic Services to produce up to 5,000 fully-electric refuse trucks. The order for the trucks has been canceled.

“This was the right decision for both companies given the resources and investments required,” Nikola CEO Mark Russell said in a statement. “We support and respect Republic Services’ commitment to achieving environmentally responsible, sustainable solutions for their customers."

The decision to end the relationship, Nikola said, was based on the “longer than expected development time” for the collaboration and review of new technologies and design concepts.

Nikola has been plagued with troubles over the past few months. A damaging short-seller report from Hindenburg Research accused the automaker’s founder Trevor Milton of defrauding investors, claiming he pushed the company’s EV technology to the forefront of the market by allegedly lying.

Nikola said the accusations were “false and defamatory,” however, Milton stepped away from the company in September.

More challenges surfaced when Nikola announced that it was teaming up with General Motors to produce the Badger electric pickup truck. GM would have taken an 11% stake in Nikola in exchange for its services and access to its components.

But the partnership was soon downgraded to focus only on producing GM’s Hydrotec fuel-cell system for Nikola’s global Class 7 and 8 semi-trucks, stalling development of the Badger truck before it even got off the ground. It is unclear what Nikola's future plans are for the Badger truck.

Shares of Nikola were trading at $15.19 as of 10:06 a.m. EST, dow $1.64 or 9.71%.