The career of the former Volkswagen-Managers and OpelBoss Michael Lohscheller (53) takes another rapid turn. After a brief stint as Head of Vietnamese newcomer VinFast, which ended abruptly after just three months shortly after Christmas, the German is drawn to the young US company Nikola. Lohscheller hires as president of the scandal start-up and is to ramp up the global business with electric trucks, Nikola announced on Tuesday. In this position he will report directly to CEO Mark Russell (58).
Lohscheller will complement the management team and will be able to provide decisive help immediately, because production of the new electric truck Tre BEV has started and important development steps have to be taken with the hydrogen-powered model Tre FCEV, according to Russell. Lohscheller said he was “extremely proud” to now belong to a company that is driving global transformation. In truth, a good part of his job is getting Nikola to be taken seriously again as a company.
Founded in 2015, the start-up was once one of the young stars of the global automotive industry. Even the name is a reference to Nikola Tesla. Founder Trevor Milton (39) promised investors that he would build electric trucks with great success. In 2020, the company went public on the Nasdaq via the Spac IPO and was now worth $35 billion there. But then a report by the hedge fund Hindenburg Research on lies and deception shook the company’s credibility. Instead of working prototypes, Nikola had sometimes only presented dummies. In a video, the company presented what appeared to be a moving electric truck, which, as it turned out later, only rolled downhill without its own drive.
Milton had to leave the company and his position as chairman was taken over by former GM manager Stephen Girsky. At the end of 2021, Nikola reached an agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Payment of $125 million. The company is now only worth around $3 billion on the stock exchange. The company will present its full-year results for 2021 later this week.
Lohscheller has global experience in the car business and was, among other things, VW CFO in the USA. Since 2017 he had been the boss of the troubled car manufacturer Opel in the new parent company PSA, which in turn merged with Fiat Chrysler in the new Stellantis group at the beginning of 2021. Girsky in particular is considered a Lohscheller fan. It is an honor to have him with Nikola now.
After VinFast, Nikola is now the next adventure for the German. He recently commented on his abrupt departure from the Vietnam company in the “Bocholter-Borkener Volksblatt”: “I would put it this way: Some things didn’t really fit. So I decided to end it early. And I think that was best for everyone involved.” So now Nikola.