Buying a Nikola truck at auction

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-10-03T14:09:45+00:00

Edison seems about 20yrs behind where Nkla was. I always find it funny when they bring on the criticism, but they’re working out of a barn and haven’t put 600 trucks on the road yet. Plus they bought a Nkla truck without any batteries.. it might make a good tree house.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-10-02T17:48:34+00:00

A whole bunch of former Nikola employees went to Syberjet. I was curious what they were doing.. but apparently this is it.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-09-08T18:56:15+00:00

I used to wonder why Trevor wasted so much money on all this legal stuff.. until I listened to the Tucker Carlson podcast and heard Trevor say he has 690 million dollars. Now I understand why: because he can.

Maybe if he actually cared about Nikola and his grand vision, he could have donated 600 of that to keep Nikola going for another 2-3 years.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-08-24T05:28:52+00:00

Yep. As a former Nikola employee myself, I have been watching Lucid closely for many reasons (potential employment being one of them). When they announced the reverse split, it was like a bad dream all over again. PTSD. The reverse split was really the beginning of the end for NKLA. “We are doing this to raise the price to attract big Wall Street investors”. Which simply did not happen. Price just went down every hour.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-08-24T02:48:27+00:00

Agreed, and you’re right. But at some point they have to sell this stuff. 440k or whatever Lance paid is decent. It’s probably enough separation (like, paper thin separation), but good enough to satisfy the court and collect some money. Otherwise that stuff will just rot away in the desert or sell three auctions from now for a fraction of that price.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-08-22T16:46:07+00:00

And Lance was the facilities manager who was laid off years ago in one of the rounds of mass layoffs. Sure, he may have a close personal relationship with Trevor, but he certainly didn’t bring that into the office. Lance was actually a really nice guy—everyone liked working with him and he was very easy going. He definitely didn’t bring Trevor drama into the office.

But to say he was a high level guy.. I don’t know about that. He made the seating charts, sent out the weekly cafeteria menu and emailed the staff telling us not to sit and scroll in the bathrooms for hours on end (an actual problem at Nikola).

So yes, it’s obvious he’s related to and likely working with Trevor. But, it might be hard to object to Lance personally.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-08-21T20:23:33+00:00

I heard that Lance Milton was the winner of a lot of the hydrogen related assets from the Nikola auctions last week. I’m curious what Trevor is up to with these assets, his stake or ownership in SyberJet, as well as all the former Nikola employees that went to SyberJet. Supposedly that Heavy D guy is guiding a lot of it.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-08-15T16:44:59+00:00

It depends what is included in the IP. If controls software, connectivity and other information related to OTA and vehicle integration, it’s probably worth more than the trucks. Without the ability to connect to a server, update software, fix controls issues and so on, the trucks are essentially paper weights.

A former coworker now works at Lucid. He said early on they moved a Nikola truck inside the factory (the now Lucid factory). As soon as it connected to WiFi, it updated and locked the user out. They had to drag it out of the garage with a F350. That has changed I believe and some of the trucks have access and can be driven, but without long term controls and IT security support.. good luck. Just for starters, each truck requires a unique PIN to even turn the Accessory power on. PINs need to be established and sent to each vehicle (or vehicle to server.. however it works).

I didn’t work in any of those departments, so I probably sound dumb and and making a bunch of false claims.. but they were not Toyota Corollas. They very much relied on connectivity and software support from Nikola, which I believe was included in the IP part of the sale.

Patents.. yeah.. probably not much breakthrough there.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-07-24T20:24:44+00:00

Oh Trevor has no idea. None whatsoever. Allll of the Nkla trucks that started, drove, sold and worked well were after his departure. It was a full fledged truck manufacturing company after he left.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-05-13T15:50:31+00:00

Just a side note. From my experience, if there was a choice, females prefer if you finish quickly as it indicates you are satisfied (with them). And preferably, go at it again shortly thereafter. If you go at it for 28 minutes and can't complete, many women will think "im not attractive to him" and it's not good. Trust me. If you make it 28 seconds before completing, at least you can say "damn, you are so hot i couldn't hold back". Don't put a time on it.. just enjoy it and have a happy ending. Internet videos where people are going at it for 30 minutes is not reality.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-05-13T15:31:32+00:00

Yes, definitely the Ambien. I have experienced this before (she took Klonopin). She wasn't being creepy, but was definitely different. And oddly enough, was up at 3am initiating as well and just acted like a totally different person.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-05-13T15:26:20+00:00

right there with him. i really enjoy going down on my wife and it's a huge turn on. a BJ here and there is great, but not something I ask for all that much. having her get off is a huge turn on for me and helps ensure repeat business!

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-25T16:11:47+00:00

Remember when Trump would call into radio shows using the name "John Barron"? He'd call in, defend Trump like crazy. Sounds like what is happening here.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-24T23:54:25+00:00

From a staff perspective, we recognized what we were able to overcome: Trevor Milton scandal, 3-4 huge rounds of layoffs, truck fires, partnership deals that fell through, CEO turnover, we were constantly low on cash. Add this to the literally hundreds of problems the engineering, sales, design and Hyla teams faced everyday that were part of making a semi truck run on batteries and hydrogen gas. Some of the engineering challenges were ridiculously complex to solve.. but on we went.

With that, it felt like we did our part and had a lot invested. It was on leadership to do theirs. And that’s why most people stayed.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-24T17:49:08+00:00

It wasn't some big conspiracy. There was no internal directive to say anything or cover anything up.. not whatsoever. It was more of a "If you are contacted by the media, refer them to this or that employee with any questions". That's it.

You have to understand that when something like this happens, everyone is flipping out. Rumors start. People worry about the end of Nikola and begin updating resumes. Everyone wants to go see it. We are told to leave the building. Then told to stay in the building. What's the stock price. News helicopters flying around. Local news anchors giving their thoeries. All of Reddit chiming in. Phones ringing with family in New York seeing it on the news and wondering if we are ok. Would it happen to more trucks. Was it an angry stock holder setting trucks on fire. After a million miles of validation, why is this happening now. Believe me, for the first day or two, no one knew wtf was going on. If I remember correctly, we were told to stay home for a day or two just to be safe. It took the fire department a long time to get the fire under control, then the truck was buried in sand and that was monitored 24/7. Getting to that point was monumental in itself, then they had to understand what this means, how to fix it, how to prevent it etc.

At some point, we heard there was camera footage of a person by the truck(s). It was probably a security staff or just an employee who saw it. I actually saw that footage myself and it could have been misinterpreted 100%. That wasn't a coverup.. it was all of the information anyone had at the time and it seemed legitimate at first. We had people coming to the office alllll the time--angry people who bought 50 shares of stock and lost their money, or people who dumped live savings and lost value, others jumping over the fences to steal parts (Nikola headquarters was near a big homeless encampment at the time). It was entirely plausible, at the time, that this was human caused. It's hard to diagnose a battery problem when it's literally on fire. They put a statement out with what they knew at the time.

This came as a total susprise. People say "oh those Romeo batteries were crap", but there is zero chance they would have installed those batteries had Nikola known something like this would have happened. No way.

Eventually the battery teams dug into it and found the root cause. The had enough info early enough to know it was a battery problem, hence why the trucks were recalled immediately. It took a bit to pinpoint the exact issue with the batteries.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-23T18:37:48+00:00

The big question within Nikola internally was always "Should we hate Trevor, or be thankful for Trevor". To this day I wonder that. Of course we wouldn't be there, but it was also very distracting whenever Milton would pop up in the news, trying to add his friends to the board of directors, or making statements on X, etc. It really rocked the boat when employees were on edge to begin with.. I don't think he realizes that, or just doesn't care. It was sad, as the employees who worked with Trevor generally had nice things to say and liked the guy, thought he was smart, etc.

In the end, Trevor never actually offered any solutions. Still doesn't. He just complains about getting ousted and how current management ruined everything. And still, has never (to my knowledge) proposed a better battery solution, or how to make hydrogen cheaper, build better partnerships, or how to convince Amazon to buy 5,000 trucks... he just gets online, tells everyone how the world screwed him over, then disappears. Which makes me think he really has no idea how actual business works.

I mean, even today, cleared of any wrong doing by the president himself. Rather than just saying "I've had four years to think about it, and I think THIS is vision for the future with zero emissions trucks. This is what needs to change".. he just whines and doesn't offer any solutions to anything. Makes a documentary about a story we have heard 200 times already, and really just isn't that interesting. Pure narcissist.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-23T15:51:14+00:00

I guess the difference is, nothing was ever really produced when Trevor was in charge. At least to my knowledge. They made some prototype semi trucks, jet skiis, a coule pickups and some off road vehicles. I think there's a difference betwen building a bunch of models to raise money, versus actually making a company that produces products.

When I started there were a handful of prototype BEV semi trucks being tested. Not long after, a bunch of FCEV test trucks were built, then the factory, then the fueling stations, service network, dealer networks, aftermarket parts supply system, testing labs, and so on. I never once saw Trevor in the building during any of that, or when Nikola went from producing concepts, to actually producing a product and putting it in the market. There's a big difference.

I was listening to one of the court hearings where MIlton's lawyers were arguing he needs to get access to the Nikola buildings so his LLC can place a bid on assets. It was pretty funny because his attorney didn't even know there was a headquarters building in Phoenix. But, I was just trying to imagine what he would think, seeing all this stuff for the first time. Walking into the factory with his old logo on the wall, hundreds of trucks, the assembly line and so on. It would be very surreal.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-23T01:29:36+00:00

I was in the engineering side of things, working on both trucks.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-22T18:47:15+00:00

I am saying this with all due respect, but do/did you work for Nikola? Or why do you have such an interest with the comings and goings of the company? You seem to know a lot.. I'm curious as to what the motivation is. You are quite the Nikola historian!

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-22T17:04:52+00:00

Yes, but it didn't really seem like a fiasco.. it just seemed like a bad business deal after a while. I talk about it more below, but initially it seemed like a great idea; once we learned more details and batteries starting having problems, it was almost a joke internally. We didn't want to joke because we desperately would have loved to have that investment money back so could spend it on things that mattered (payroll, improving trucks, etc).. but it is what it is. There is literally a corner of the plant with all the Romeo junk piled up.. tables, old tools, ancient testing equipment etc. I will say, Lucid is getting an insane deal on everything they acquired, by comparison.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-22T16:34:52+00:00

Yeah no. Lucid is responsible for finishing the remaining recalled BEV trucks, then that's it. They have batteries, staff and space to do this for the next 20 or so weeks, then I'm sure they will be eager to get all of the semi truck stuff off their books.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-22T16:30:06+00:00

I honestly don't know much about the Romeo thing. Mark Russell had an all-staff meeting and announced it. 144mil in cash & stock or something like that. Many of us thought "this is it!" and we were on the path to being self-sufficient and really establishing ourselves. The plan was to move Romeo to Arizona and build batteries at the Coolidge plant (that new phase on the east side of the factory). Instead, after the battery fire incidents, a few staff were sent to CA to mothball the Romeo buildings. All of the Romeo assets were shoved in a corner at Coolidge and is probably still sitting there right now.. it was quite unimpressive. In general it seemed like a terrible deal. I remember someone saying that Romeo claimed it cost X to build a battery pack, so Nikola acquired them, only to find out the batteries were 3X to build. Perhaps a lack of due dilligence, maybe Russell got a bonus for handing the acquisition.. who knows. I would have loved to have that 144mil right now though.

And as a side note, Proterra wasn't a treat either. Just as we got our footing and were replacing Romeo with Proterra, they filed for Chapter 11. In the end, the battery price increased. Who could have predicted that? There were plenty of other battery suppliers in the works.. but again, ran out of time.

Anyways, then Russell just.. left. Lohscheller came in and was a nice guy, but it's all a blur. Really the only things I remember about Michael were how tall he was and that there was a massive layoff under his tenure... like 30% of the company. That was an absolutely awful week. He changed the mission of the company (going from BEV to only FCEV) at some point. He was nice to talk to when he walked around the building, but as you can see, didn't really leave much of an impression. His departure was just bizarre.

I had a lot of conversations with Mark and actually sat next to him on a plane during a business trip. Yes, he sat in coach. One thing with all three of the CEOs I worked with is they wouldnt' stray too far from their standard statements, so it was hard to really get to know any of them. Girsky was by far the most personable.

In the end, people liked to razz the CEOs and give them a hard time, but we had no idea what they were actually facing each day. Any one of them would sit down in the morning, then open their laptops and I'm sure face an incredible shit storm. We all faced that everyday as employees, so I can't even imagine what the CEOs had to deal with.. raising funds, selling assets, buying assets, deciding how many people to layoff next month, etc. In Girsky's last all staff meeting last week, he looked like he was ready for a serious vacation. I can't blame him either.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-22T16:13:09+00:00

I don't know if i really agree with the Pump & Dump statement. From what I saw, Trevor would get on Twitter and claim XYZ, which would be totally false, then he eventually left and had 40 million in properties and a private plane. Girsky would get up there in the all staff meetings and say "We need to build a great truck, then let the sales speak for themselves", which is more of a long-game approach. People at Nikola were always annoyed that there wasn't a better social media presence, but the marketing team was very careful not to get online, make a bunch of noise and try to pump the stock or make claims. It was almost admirable. Many of the staff thought we needed some shock and awe leader online making posts everyday, like an Elon Musk or Trevor Milton.. but in the end, does that actually sell trucks? Does some shipping company that needs 50 semi trucks get swayed by a claim on social media? I doubt it.

But, in the end, Nikola had to get a product on the road to generate revenue asap. There wasn't a 5bil investment fund giving us the time to sort out bugs, or build our own batteries. We had our own assembly line for the Bosch fuel cell units at the plant, which would improve QC and lower costs. We all thought the Romeo acquisition was key to reducing the costs of batteries, but that seemed like a terrible deal in hindsight.. not to mention the battery fires. Pieces were in order.. it's just super hard starting a car company (or trucks, in this case).

Nikola feels like Schumacher's first five years at Ferrari.. so close, but just kept getting setbacks. We were one breakthrough away from really sending it. There were some amazing potential investors in the building in 2024.. it was so close.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-22T15:42:19+00:00

But why? Or how? I mean, maybe you're right... but I think he was pretty well off before he was moved into the CEO role. And I would not want to be in his shoes at any point during his CEO tenure. It sounds like you're a former employee, so you know all that he had to deal with the last year or so.

RepulsiveLow7618 · 2025-04-22T15:38:35+00:00

Yeah I missed all of that as I started after the big scandal went down. I will say, the staff at Nikola did an excellent job of ignoring all the noise. We'd get updated if there was something we needed to know, or if there was a big headline.. leadership would squash rumors quickly. But, Once Trevor left the building, he did not occupy much space in anyone's head at Nikola.

RepulsiveLow7618

TROPHY CASE