One other Nikola truck has caught on fireplace in Phoenix at this time. It’s the fourth fireplace incident involving Nikola vans in only a few months – but the corporate insists they’re protected to drive.

In June, the Phoenix fireplace division confirmed that 5 Nikola semi-trucks caught fireplace at its headquarters.

The scenario was fairly unusual as the corporate was fast to inform the general public it believed “foul play” was concerned within the fireplace, however it didn’t have a variety of proof to again the declare. It solely talked about {that a} car was noticed on the scene earlier than the fireplace.

We have been suspicious of the scenario as we discovered from inside sources that Nikola had a serious battery defect within the modules produced by Romeo, a battery provider it acquired final yr.

Final month, Nikola ended up recalling all 209 BEV vans that it had produced over a battery defect.

On the time, the corporate refused to utterly disavow its declare of “foul play” however acknowledged {that a} coolant leak was “the possible explanation for the truck fireplace” with out being utterly certain.

On the similar time, the corporate disclosed a second battery fireplace incident. Earlier this week, one other Nikola truck fireplace was reported by Arizona Lithium at its facility in Tempe.

In the present day, a fourth fireplace incident occurred, as soon as once more happening at Nikola’s HQ in Phoenix.

Neighbors of the power contacted Electrek to inform us {that a} Nikola truck was visibly on fireplace on the facility.

We contacted Nikola in regards to the incident, and the corporate launched this assertion that downplayed the incident as involving an “engineering validation battery-electric truck.”

On Friday September 8 at roughly 8:30 am, there was a thermal incident with one engineering validation battery-electric truck close to Nikola’s Phoenix headquarters. Nobody was injured. This pre-production truck was outdoors and present process battery fireplace investigation and testing. We thank the Phoenix first responders for his or her fast motion. We’ll share extra info as we study extra.

If our depend is correct, that’s now 4 separate fireplace incidents involving Nikola vans in as many months and eight vans in whole being concerned.

That’s fairly an issue when there are solely about 200 autos on the highway.

Nikola’s inventory was down by as a lot as 15% at this time following the information. It now trades below $1.00 a share.

Electrek’s Take

You probably have been following me on X, you may know that I predicted that that is seemingly the tip of Nikola.

The one means I noticed them surviving that is if they’d deal with the recall completely, and it appears like that’s removed from the case.

The recall discover asks homeowners to go away the automobile outdoors to “get higher connectivity for over-the-air updates” and never as a result of the autos are vulnerable to catching on fireplace:

That is ridiculous. The recall paperwork on NHTSA’s web site haven’t been up to date for the reason that final two incidents.

I hope the company is throughout this as a result of it appears to me like Nikola is extra involved with its plunging inventory worth than with the protection issues that include its vans catching on fireplace.

Lastly, I hope it’s clear to the market that this isn’t a sign that zero-emission vans don’t work. It’s simply an instance of a poorly managed firm.