Nikola’s loss widens following a costly recall of its battery-electric semi trucks

Electric truck maker Nikola stated Thursday that it has acquired almost 300 orders for its new hydrogen gas cell semitruck – but it surely’s dealing with what will probably be a costly recall of its earlier battery-electric trucks.

Nikola recalled all of its Tre battery-electric trucks, 209 in whole, in August following a hearth brought on by a coolant leak in a truck’s battery pack. It stated on Thursday that after an investigation into the causes, it has determined to interchange the battery packs on all 209 trucks at an estimated price of $61.8 million.

It expects to renew delivering battery-electric trucks to clients within the first quarter subsequent 12 months. Despite the recall, a supplier ordered 47 battery-electric through the third quarter, Nikola stated.

Nikola stated it at present has 277 “non-binding” orders for its new fuel-cell truck, from 35 completely different fleet clients. It shipped a whole of three trucks through the third quarter, versus 63 within the year-ago quarter.

Here are the important thing numbers from Nikola’s third-quarter earnings report.

• Adjusted loss per share: 30 cents vs. 14 cents anticipated by Wall Street analysts polled by LSEG, previously often known as Refinitiv
• Revenue: Negative $1.7 million vs. Wall Street’s estimate of $13.3 million, in line with LSEG

Nikola’s web loss was $425.8 million, or 50 cents per share. On an adjusted foundation, excluding stock-based compensation, it misplaced 30 cents per share. A year ago, Nikola misplaced $236.2 million, or 54 cents per share.  

Nikola reported unfavourable income of $1.7 million within the third quarter, after it paid out about $2.4 million to purchase again seven trucks from former sellers as new CEO Steve Girsky refocused the corporate’s gross sales efforts on California. Its income was $24.2 million within the third quarter of 2022.

Nikola raised $250 million through the third quarter. As of Sept. 30, it had $362.9 million in money, up from $226.7 million as of June 30 and simply $121.1 million as of March 31.