Nikola Corporation, the startup that has manufactured electric- and hydrogen-fueled semitrucks at a factory on the south end of Coolidge for the last three years, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware to pursue a sale of assets.
The Feb. 19 filing was accompanied by a notice to the state of Arizona that it would lay off 315 workers at the plant and 540 staff at the company’s Phoenix headquarters.
The bankruptcy filing and accompanying press release said the company has $47 million in cash and listed its top 30 unsecured creditors, the largest figure being $80.2 million to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a “government settlement.”
Nikola agreed in 2021 to pay $125 million to settle claims by the SEC that its founder and former CEO, Trevor Milton, defrauded investors by making misleading claims about its vehicles and their technology before any had been produced. Milton was sentenced to four years in prison for the scheme in December 2023.
Along with Lucid Motors, which is operating a million-square-foot factory in Casa Grande, Nikola heralded the arrival of Pinal County as a new hub for electric-vehicle manufacturing at the beginning of this decade, attracting a handful of suppliers to the region. At its height the company employed about 1,500 people in Arizona and produced a few hundred battery- and hydrogen-powered vehicles.
According to a FAQ section of the Nikola website, the company’s board of directors voted to go the bankruptcy route because, “Like other companies in the electric vehicle industry, we have faced various market and macroeconomic factors that have impacted our ability to operate.” The company states it has tried and failed to raise capital, reduce liabilities and take other steps to keep the venture afloat.
The website said the Chapter 11 filing will allow the publicly traded company to “restructure its debt and implement an orderly wind down of the business, while conducting a structured process to solicit interest in the sale of all, substantially all, or a portion of its operations.”
