the former OpelBoss Michael Lohscheller (54) is giving up his top job at American electric truck builder Nikola after less than a year. Lohscheller is retiring for family reasons and will return to Europe, Nikola announced on Friday. The successor is the previous head of the board of directors Steven Girsky (61), who once played his role in rescuing the car giant General Motors got known. According to the company, he will take over the position “immediately”. The truck manufacturer is changing its boss for the fourth time in four years.
The resignation was not well received on the stock exchange. The share
Lost more than 16 percent at times on the Nasdaq on Friday afternoon. In early summer, the tech exchange Nikola threatened to delist after the stock had traded at less than a dollar for more than 30 days at a time. Most recently, however, Nikola’s share price had recovered somewhat.
Lohscheller came to Nikola in February 2022. First he led the motor division, but then moved up to the top post at the end of the year after his predecessor Mark Russel (59) had retired. The company founded in 2020 by Fraud allegations against founder Trevor Milton (41) was shaken, started production of its fuel cell trucks at the end of July and wants to deliver the first of them in September. So far there have been orders for 200 vehicles, it said on Friday.
Nikola built 33 of its battery-powered trucks last quarter. The annual production capacity for models with both powertrains has meanwhile been increased to up to 2400 per year.
In the past quarter, Nikola reported a net loss of nearly $218 million on sales of $15 million. In contrast, the loss in continuing operations fell by 32 to 140 million dollars.