Promotion for Michael Lohscheller (54). The German automotive manager will be the new CEO of the truck start-up Nikola on January 1, 2023. As the US company announced on Wednesday, the current boss Mark Russell (58) will then retire. Lohscheller, who joined Nikola in February as head of the engine division, will be part of the board of directors now, it said. Russell will remain a member of the Board of Directors even after his operational departure.
In the future, Nikola’s fortunes will be led primarily by two former Opel bosses. Stephen Girsky (60) chairs the Nikola supervisory board. In 2012, after the resignation of Karl-Friedrich Stracke (66) as interim boss, the long-time General Motors manager took over the reins in Rüsselsheim for a few days in July. Michael Lohscheller slipped into that role between June 2017 and September 2021. This was followed by a short interlude at the Vietnamese carmaker Vinfast, before the former Volkswagen man joined Nikola.
Lohscheller was “honored” in a reaction to his appointment as head of Nikola. Nikola has a “robust business model” and is “well positioned to capitalize on the growth opportunities ahead and to accelerate our strategic initiatives.” Chairman of the Supervisory Board Girsky praised the German for “an increased degree of urgency” and “accelerated decision-making” in the last six months. For example, Lohscheller had “great influence” on the start of series production of the battery-electric truck “Nikola Tre BEV”.
However, this began in March, immediately after Lohscheller’s arrival. Since then, the company has been building the e-truck, which is said to travel up to 560 kilometers on one battery charge, in homeopathic doses. In the second quarter, 50 units rolled off the assembly line at the plant in Coolidge, Arizona, and Nikola delivered 48. Nikola explained the manageable figures, among other things, with problems at the battery supplier Romeo Power. A few days ago, Nikola then announced the takeover of that supplier.
The start-up aims to produce 300 to 500 vehicles in total by the end of the year. In perspective, Nikola also wants to offer a fuel cell truck, the “Tre FCEV” with a range of up to 800 kilometers.
Nikola is shaken by scandals
Girsky did not mention in his eulogy to Lohscheller that Lohscheller will have to continue working on regaining trust in Nikola. The company started in 2015, and hype quickly arose around the company, whose name is a reference to Nikola Tesla. The promises of founder Trevor Milton (40) that he would be able to successfully build electric trucks initially caught on. After the Spac IPO in June 2020, Nikola was now worth $35 billion.
A terrible crash followed. The trigger was a report by hedge find Hindenburg Research, which accused Nikola of lying and fraud. The manufacturer had deceived interested parties, sometimes only presented dummies instead of working prototypes. In a video in 2017, Nikola presented a supposedly driving electric truck. Later it turned out that it didn’t have its own drive and only rolled downhill. The manufacturer’s attempts at an explanation could not calm the situation down. For example, Nikola explained that it was never claimed that the truck shown in the video was driving under its own power.
On September 21, 2020, Milton resigned as Nikola boss. Criminal proceedings have been pending against him for possible fraud since the summer of 2021. At the end of 2021, Nikola, in turn, agreed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on a fine of 125 million dollars.
No gains, stock down
the Nikola share
has not recovered from the scandal so far, since the start the paper has lost almost 90 percent of its value. Nikola is currently worth almost three billion dollars on the stock exchange. The company has not yet been able to make a profit in its young history, Nikola burned almost 173 million dollars in the second quarter of 2022 alone.
Michael Lohscheller should now manage the turnaround. He is familiar with bad numbers, having taken over Opel in a precarious situation in 2017. In Rüsselsheim he earned a reputation as a renovator, but in 2021 he gave up, unnerved by his increasingly smaller role under the new owner PSA – later Stellantis. At Nikola he now has full control again – now Lohscheller has to show that he can not only renovate, but also lead a manufacturer on the road to success for the first time.