Nikola Founder Speaks On Their Hydrogen-Fueled Trucks.
CHATTERLEY: Welcome back to FIRST MOVE. U.S. stocks are up and running for the final session of this week and we're seeing strong gains across the board in early trade, as you can see. Blue chips the out performers. The NASDAQ above 10,000 once again, closing in on record highs. We've seen a bit of a tug-of-war all week between hopes for economic reopening and revival on the one hand and then on the other, there are persistently high jobless claims in the United States and of course, fresh concerns about COVID-19 case risings. We've got widely different forecasts from U.S. financial heavy weights, too. Take a look at this. JPMorgan Chase says one of its models shows an almost 50 percent upside for U.S. stocks from here. Compare and contrast. Bridgewater's Ray Dalio is warning of a lost decade for stocks. He fears we've reached a peak of globalization and we'll see a big drop in corporate profitability. Now, if you're looking for a stock picks and meteoric rises, look no further than Arizona based Nikola motor. The company quietly listed on the NASDAQ on June 3rd. Since then, the stock rose more than 100 percent with a market cap exceeding $23 billion. That makes the company more valuable than Ford and Fiat-Chrysler, at least at times. What's driving this investor optimism? Well, in part, its preorders of their sleek hydrogen powered hybrid trucks. The company says they represent more than $10 billion in potential future revenue.</s>CHATTERLEY: The company's founder and executive chairman, Trevor Milton joins us now. Trevor, great to have you with us. All sorts of comparisons naturally made with a combination of car tech company. The likes of Tesla of course, but actually, it's very different. Explain the vision for Nikola.</s>TREVOR MILTON, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, NIKOLA MOTOR: Yes, it is really awesome. I mean, we targeted the second largest polluting industry in the world, which is transportation, heavy duty transportation, and so that's where Nikola started. We build -- we're the first ever zero emission semi-truck company in the world and what we do is cover both hydrogen and battery electric. So we don't just build one. If you look at Tesla, they build one truck. It's just battery. Nikola builds both the hydrogen, electric, semi-trucks and battery electric semi-trucks and they both have their advantages and disadvantages and so, we've wrapped up over $10 billion worth of potential future revenue already in preorders for our truck and that's why I think people are excited about what we do.</s>CHATTERLEY: Why hybrid? Why use a combination of both. I mean, you've made the point that actually Tesla focuses on electric vehicles only. I mean, Elon Musk has called the use of fuel cells using hydrogen staggeringly dumb. He calls them fool cells, too. Why do you think there is opportunity in hydrogen where he doesn't?</s>MILTON: Yes, well, I mean, he doesn't use batteries to send rockets to space, right?</s>CHATTERLEY: Okay.</s>MILTON: So I mean, there is no like -- there is no -- one size does not fit all, and when you know trucking or transportation really well. Up to 300 miles, batteries work really well because they are very cheap to drive. When you get over 300 miles, the weight becomes a disadvantage and so that's where hydrogen comes in and the unique thing about Nikola is, we're the only company that I know of in the world that is fully vertically integrated. That means, we don't just provide the truck, we provide all the hydrogen for it, too. We produce our own hydrogen through zero emission methods. So, our supply chain is zero emission from production to consumption unlike anyone else in the world, and that's why there has really been so much excitement. One size just does not fit all in transportation, unfortunately.</s>CHATTERLEY: And this is one of the challenges as well with the electric is the charging stations. I know you have also got interest in the hydrogen fueling stations, as well, which I think is your point about actually providing the power here, too.</s>MILTON: Yes, so I mean, there's -- as I said, there is advantages and disadvantages to battery and hydrogen. The disadvantage to batteries are is it takes two to three hours to charge those massive battery banks on semi- trucks without damaging the batteries and sometimes that can -- you know, that turnaround time would kill you and it takes a ton of energy out of the grid. The advantage of hydrogen is you can turn that truck, you can fill it up in 15 minutes and then go on the road again and you can do that 24 hours a day without ever stopping. Hydrogen is produced over 24 hours of the day using all the peak load from solar. So, right now, throughout the world, like solar and wind energy, a lot of it is just given away or they pay people to take it at their power companies because they have too much of it on the grid. Hydrogen solves that problem by taking all that excess energy, producing hydrogen over 24 hours a day and then it just dispenses it in zero emission hydrogen gas into the vehicle and that's why there's real good advantages to what hydrogen does.</s>CHATTERLEY: Explain the excitement, and is excitement about what might be ultimately because you haven't delivered a truck yet. You have lots of preorders as I mentioned. I want to tackle something that came up very recently and that was sort of an accusation dating back to 2016 from Bloomberg that you misled people about the capabilities of the truck at that point. I know you've denied them. Can you just explain where you stand at this point and just refute some of the allegations?</s>MILTON: Yeah, it was just really sad. I mean, Bloomberg -- this guy, well, he did a hit job on Nikola and he knew it was a lie because we recorded the whole interview and we're going to post it out there for everyone to actually listen to. He knew it was a lie. There are videos that show that we told people, hey -- I mean, his main claim was that the truck wasn't moving at Nikola World and in 2016 is what? Four or five years ago. Our first prototype we ever built. And we told everyone in the audience it was capable of moving, but we didn't want to because of the danger of it. So, all of the parts functioned. You had batteries, you had motors, you had the axels, you had inverters. You had everything there. It was all there. And instead of you know, taking a risk and possibly hurting or killing someone, we decided to make the truck inoperable on the stage and we never -- you know, we never took it out on the road because it just wasn't safe. So, we rebuilt a whole brand-new one and that's what we unveiled, you know that's what showed off and that's what you see video of our trucks driving all over. We've done deliveries with Anheuser-Busch on the highways, on the main roads -- or downtown St. Louis. So, it is really sad because like, there was clear evidence what he was saying was a lie. It was just a hit job. He is a very big Tesla fanatic. He's in Tesla's back pocket, and so his entire job was to hit Nikola and try to stop our growth. And I just -- you know, look, it's bad for all journalists. When one journalist begins to become -- advocating for one company or deceiving people, I am going to call them out. I am not afraid.</s>MILTON: But I also love journalism. So, I just don't want people to act like that. You know, hit me for -- there's lots of things to hit me on. I mean, for heaven's sake --</s>CHATTERLEY: He has made his accusations, you're responding and I know, you're suing them. So you'll battle it out. I do want to ask you though, when are you going to deliver some of these trucks and when are you going to see revenues coming in?</s>MILTON: Yes, that's the number one question, and I think investors have been really -- when we went into this IPO, we told everyone, look, we're more than a year out on revenue. Everyone knows that. It was in all of our disclosures, and investors are okay with that because we're changing the entire world. Like, we're literally -- they're saying if you're willing to go in and disrupt oil all together, we will give you one or two years. I mean, it took Tesla what? Ten years to ever become -- even hit a profitable quarter almost. So, they are like, you know what? One or two years, a couple of years, Trevor, we're totally there for you. And when does our revenue begin? Well, our original filings were around the middle to end of 2021. With COVID, we don't know. There is a couple of months delay. We don't know how far, when the markets will open back up. We still can't get into Germany. That's where our factory is. So once all of the borders open up and our employees can start going back and forth, we'll know that but we're -- there's a little bit of a delay, but it's not too bad. You know, sometime in the end of 2021 beginning, sometime in 2022. It depends on COVID restrictions.</s>CHATTERLEY: Wow. It is going to be fascinating to watch. Trevor, great to have you on. Stay in touch and keep us updated on progress. Trevor Milton, the founder and executive chairman of Nikola Motor.</s>MILTON: That was good. Thanks. Appreciate it.</s>CHATTERLEY: Thank you. All right, still to come on FIRST MOVE, helping other black entrepreneurs succeed. We speak to one of the cofounders of a fund run by and aimed at black business people. Stay with us.