Tesla is the first successful new American car brand to come along in decades, but compared with how his younger rivals are operating, Elon Musk's game plan now looks thoroughly old-school.
Newer car companies have paid attention to the Tesla story and attempting to follow a less unpredictable path. Henrik Fisker, who established a rivalry with Tesla in the 2010s with Fisker Automotive before the operation went bankrupt in 2013, is back with a new brand, Fisker, and a rather different business model.Fisker went public earlier this year, via a "special purpose acquisition company" established by private-equity firm Apollo Global Management.
But on Tuesday, Nikola revealed that it had formed a partnership with General Motors. The biggest US automaker by sales said it would act as a contract manufacturer for the Nikola Badger pickup and contribute fuel-cell powertrain technology to the Nikola's heavy freight truck. GM also took a $2 billion equity stake in Nikola, echoing investments it has made in self-driving startup Cruise and ride-sharing firm Lyft.
GM CEO Mary Barra added that in her view "the industry is changing" and that creating a vehicle platform with Ultium is a huge opportunity that the company fully intends to leverage. The company isn't just deploying Ultium with startups. Last week, it said it was exploring an expanded partnership with Honda.
His realization has led Fisker to push for an asset-light business model, heralding it as a solution to the age-old challenge of the auto industry: burning through enormous amounts of cash to bring cars to market.
Nikola is just a brand name that GM is buying because the GM brand is dead. Nikola won't design or make any cars. GM will do it all and get bailed out by the govt when it all implodes.
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