GM Won’t Serve As the Electric Pickup Manufacturing Arm of Startup Nikola

In statements today, GM said it will sell fuel cells to Nikola for its electric semi-truck, but it omitted any mention of its abortive September agreement to engineer a pickup truck for the startup. At the same time, Nikola’s shares also plunged after Nikola said it will be canceling the electric Badger pickup.

In September, GM said it would engineer and manufacture the Badger, plus take a $2 billion, 11% stake in Nikola. The deal would have provided billions in cash to GM. But it seemed to demonstrate an insecure GM, relegated to the labor pool while Nikola basked in GM’s engineering, whose much-promoted Ultium battery system would be part of the deal.

The deal began to get shaky after a short seller’s report alleged fraud at Nikola, and the startup’s founder, Trevor Milton, resigned. Since then, GM has conducted high-profile news events heralding its own coming electric Hummer pickup.