Nikola Corp said it did not expect short-term relief from the problems affecting demand after it shipped fewer than one-sixth of its battery-powered products truckThat’s what it achieved in the fourth quarter, with shares down as much as 9% on Thursday.
Phoenix, Arizona-based EV startup with ambitions to bring the first hydrogen-powered heavy-duty vehicle to market truckLater in the year, its cash pile dwindled in the quarter, and it forecasts a deep loss in gross margins in 2023.
Nikola executives painted a dire picture on a call with investors, pointing to slower-than-expected adoption of battery-powered semiconductorstruckThis is due to issues including a lack of charging network.
“We don’t think these challenges will be alleviated anytime soon,” said Nikola Chief Financial Officer Kim Brady.
In the fourth quarter, it missed revenue targets by a wide margin and reported widening losses.
Like other small EV companies, Nikola faces high production costs and supply bottlenecks at a time when rising inflation has stagnated demand.
Tesla has struggled for years to increase production to mass levels and has endured self-admitted “production hell,” recently announcing price cuts and increasing market share.
Brady told investors that Nikola would be better off delivering fewer Tre BEVs to preserve cash and minimize losses. This model has a maximum range of 330 miles.
Tesla, it delivered its first Semi truck PepsiCo PEP.O In December, the mileage range has not been announced, but a PepsiCo official told Reuters that their Semis will have a range of 500 miles.
Nikola says it produced 133 in the fourth quarter trucks and deliver only 20 of them to dealers. It expects to deliver 250 to 350 Tre BEVs this year, compared with 131 in 2022.
Nikola shares, which hit an all-time high of $94 in June 2020 just days after going public, were trading at $2.15 on Thursday. Shares of other electric car makers, including Lucid Group Inc LCID.O also fell sharply.
Lucid on Wednesday forecast 2023 production well below Wall Street expectations and reported a sharp drop in orders in the December quarter.
another electric car truck Lordstown Motor Company to ride It also said Thursday it would temporarily halt production and deliveries of its pickup trucks truck Its shares tumbled 11% due to performance and quality issues with certain components.
It expects a negative gross margin of 75% to 95% in 2023. In its investor day presentation early last year, the company had forecast positive gross margins for Tre BEV.
At the end of December, Nikola had $233.4 million in cash and cash equivalents, down from $497.2 million a year earlier.
Refinitiv’s December quarter revenue of $6.6 million fell short of analysts’ expectations of $32.1 million, with a net loss widening to $222.1 million from $158.9 million a year earlier.