Nikola Founder Trevor Milton steps down, replaced by former GM vice chairman

(Image: Reuters)

Nikola Corporation Founder Trevor Milton has resigned effective immediately as Executive Chairman of the electric vehicle (EV) start-up, the company said in a statement on September 20.

Milton said he made the decision as “focus should be on the company and its mission, not me” adding that “Nikola is in my blood and always will be,” Bloomberg reported.

His move comes less than two weeks after a sharply critical report of Nikola brought the startup in the radar of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the US Department of Justice.

Milton, who founded the company in 2014, has been replaced by board member Stephen Girsky, 58, who is designated as Chairman, Bloomberg reported. Girsky, was a Vice Chairman of General Motors (GM) and had helped pull the Detroit-based automaker out of bankruptcy.

Notably, Nikola in early September signed a $2 billion partnership deal with GM to manufacture the latter’s pick-up trucks and EV ventures. GM now holds 11 percent cash-free equity in the start-up.

Since listing in June 2020, Nikola’s stock saw wild swings. At one point it even soared higher than Ford Motor and made Milton who own 35 percent stock, worth $9 billion and the world’s 188th richest person, as per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI). Milton is now worth $4 billion.

The stock however tumbled after short seller Hindenburg Research questioned Nikola’s claims of its EV tech and called it “an intricate fraud built on dozens of lies”, drawing regulator attention. The criticism was called a “hit job” by Milton who tweeted detailed responses to the “one-sided false claims,” the report noted.