Nikola Wins Research Grant From DOE

Scandal-plagued electrical truck maker Nikola introduced Thursday that it gained a $two million grant from the U.S. Vitality Office to acquire hydrogen refueling technologies.

The grant was formally awarded July 7 — 3 weeks in advance of Nikola founder Trevor Milton was indicted on 3 counts of criminal fraud for lying about “nearly all facets of the business” to improve the startup’s stock sales.

“Even in advance of the indictment, the looming lawful issues were well acknowledged as the organization disclosed it experienced received subpoenas from each the Justice Office and the Securities and Exchange Commission,” CNN pointed out.

Nikola said the grant was for advancing its investigate into autonomous refueling technologies for upcoming hydrogen fueling stations. Some of the electrical trucks Nikola is developing would be powered by large responsibility hydrogen fuel cells.

“This funding is necessary to progress essential hydrogen fueling technologies that can enhance the over-all effectiveness of fuel-cell industrial motor vehicles, though retaining the basic safety and dependability expectations needed,” Pablo Koziner, who leads Nikola’s hydrogen fueling small business, said in a information launch.

Milton was forced to resign as Nikola’s executive chairman in September 2020 right after limited-vendor Hindenburg Study alleged the organization was “an intricate fraud designed on dozens of lies more than the program of [Milton’s] career.” Nikola admitted in a filing earlier this 12 months that an interior investigation showed Milton experienced deceived buyers.

In response to the grant award, Hindenburg pointed out that Milton’s indictment quoted him as declaring that “Nikola was making hydrogen and was performing so at a minimized price tag, when [he] understood that in simple fact no hydrogen was getting produced at all by Nikola, at any price tag.”

The limited-vendor added that it uncertainties “a $two million grant will aid renovate that lie into a reality.”

In accordance to The Verge, the grant comes at a time when the Vitality Office “is acquiring ready to ramp up funding exercise to aid progress the United States’ progress of clean up power technologies — a priority underneath President Biden.”

The department “makes funding awards primarily based on a demanding, advantage-primarily based review process that features a number of know-how authorities examining programs,” it said Thursday.

Office of Vitality, electrical trucks, grants, hydrogen refueling, Nikola, Trevor Milton