What Does The $2 Billion Partnership Between General Motors And Nikola Mean?

General Motors (GM) and Nikola (NKLA) have teamed up to produce the electric truck maker’s Badger pickup truck.

Through the partnership, General Motors will receive a $2 billion equity stake in Nikola or 11% ownership of the automaker, which comes with certain-in-kind contributions. GM will engineer, validate, homologate, and build the Badger pickup truck in both the electric-powered and fuel cell-powered configurations.

Together, the companies will collaborate to realize cost savings, which Nikola estimates to be over $4 billion in battery and powertrain expenses over the next 10 years and over $1 billion in engineering and validation costs.

“You couldn’t dream of a better partnership than this,” Nikola Founder and Executive Chairman Trevor Milton said in a statement released Tuesday. “By joining together, we get access to their validated parts for all of our programs, General Motors’ Ultium battery technology and a multi-billion dollar fuel cell program ready for production.”

“Nikola immediately gets decades of supplier and manufacturing knowledge, validated and tested production-ready EV propulsion, world-class engineering and investor confidence. Most importantly, General Motors has a vested interest to see Nikola succeed. We made three promises to our stakeholders and have now fulfilled two out of three promises ahead of schedule,” he added.

GM said it expects to receive more than $4 billion in benefits through the deal, including the equity value of shares, which were up nearly 30% at premarket open on Tuesday. GM will also get contract manufacturing of the Badger, supply contracts for batteries and fuel cells, and EV credits that it retain throughout the life of the Nikola contract.

Nikola will utilize GM’s Ultium battery system and Hydrotec fuel cell technology and collaboration across the truck maker’s Nikola Tre, Nikola One, Nikola Two, and NZT models. General Motors will also be the exclusive supplier of fuel cells outside of Europe to Nikola for its Class 7 and Class 8 trucks. Nikola will continue to sell and market the Badger pickup truck, which will retain the company’s branding.

The Badger pickup truck made a splash in February when it was announced. No prototype of the truck existed at the time, but it is slated to begin production by the end of 2022.

Nikola said it will debut the Badger Dec. 3-5 at its Nikola World 2020 event in Arizona. Pre-order reservations are currently being offered the truck for $100 on the Nikola website. Nikola said the production location of the truck will be announced later this year.

The GM-Nikola partnership is subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close on Sept. 30.

“This strategic partnership with Nikola, an industry leading disrupter, continues the broader deployment of General Motors’ all-new Ultium battery and Hydrotec fuel cell systems,” General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra, said in a statement.

“We are growing our presence in multiple high-volume EV segments while building scale to lower battery and fuel cell costs and increase profitability. In addition, applying General Motors’ electrified technology solutions to the heavy-duty class of commercial vehicles is another important step in fulfilling our vision of a zero-emissions future,” she added.

Shares of Nikola were up $45.50 as of 9:30 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, up $9.95 or 27.99%, while shares of GM were trading at $31.95, up $1.95 or 6.49%.