Nikola Stops Work on Electric Watercraft and ATV Projects

Zero-emission trucking company Nikola has shuttered its so-called Powersports division and is pausing work on an electric personal watercraft and off-road vehicle first announced in April 2019. From a report: Nikola stopped work on the projects as part of a larger push to focus on getting its first hydrogen-powered truck out the door, following a number of stumbles in 2020. "We still own the NZT and WAV rights and have put the projects on pause. We may consider moving forward with them at a later time," a spokesperson tells The Verge. "Right now we are focusing on commercial trucking and hydrogen infrastructure." Nikola started pursuing an electric watercraft back in 2017 after it bought up one of the more promising startups working on the idea. The off-road vehicle was a hybrid of sorts, mixing dune buggy styling with the kinds of comforts found in passenger cars, like air conditioning. Nikola was promising the so-called NZT vehicle would get 590 horsepower and 150 miles of range. It was supposed to come to market this year at a starting price of $80,000.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

It's not about stock.

[denzacar]

At this point it's all about copper. [youtu.be]

They hit a technical issue

[Hentes]

They couldn't find a slope on the water to slide their craft off on.

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[burtosis]

Considering dune buggies traditionally are open with a roll cage I’m assuming their air conditioning has hit a minor snag.

Re:They hit a technical issue

[indytx]

They couldn't find a slope on the water to slide their craft off on.

Niagara Falls? It would be symbolic!

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[kot-begemot-uk]

No, they could not find some marketing with a clue.

Full electric boats have been made before. Funnily enough in USSR. They have a fairly large target market - all river/lake fishermen and waterfowl hunters. Slow, absolutely silent and with good camo - practically invisible. The boat in question which was made in the 80-es was known on the second hand market as "The Poacher's Dream". It was stopped from manufacturing for that exact reason - the river police patrols were totally helpless against them.

If so

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[kot-begemot-uk]

Oh, forgot - The old Soviet bucket was also the only model on their market with a waterjet. Not just electric, but silent waterjet propulsion. It could go in and out of marshland, and stop at any riverbank without risking propeller damage. All of that while making less noise than some submarines. The name "Poacher's Dream" was a perfect fit.

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[tlhIngan]

Full electric boats have been made before. Funnily enough in USSR. They have a fairly large target market - all river/lake fishermen and waterfowl hunters. Slow, absolutely silent and with good camo - practically invisible. The boat in question which was made in the 80-es was known on the second hand market as "The Poacher's Dream". It was stopped from manufacturing for that exact reason - the river police patrols were totally helpless against them.

There are electric trawler motors you can get for lazily s

Re: They hit a technical issue

[paul_engr]

I didn't get this joke until an hour after reading it and walking away. Now I see what you did and I must say well done, sir.

Rolling in his grave

[Anonymouse 2]

I wonder if two different companies hijacking his name is making N. Tesla roll in his grave. Maybe exhume and retrofit the body with a magnet and copper to generate some power while are at it.

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[OrangeTide]

Nikola Tesla was screwed over by everyone even when he was alive. When he died they only had one less reason to stop.

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[e3m4n]

If Tesla was running the experiment he would not invest in heavy batteries. He would be trying to beam the electricity through the ground directly to the vehicle. His ideas were not impossible, he just did mot understand how living tissue responds to that much electric fields and em radiation. Its why there has been correlation to exist between childhood lukemia and high tension power lines. At their current levels of development his experiments are not safe for long term exposure. More shielding would hav

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[Errol backfiring]

In other words: Tesla was alive - but not as we know it.

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[olsmeister]

Obviously tinfoil hats are not only for humans.

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[jellomizer]

Granted if his wireless electric transmission worked well and effectively. It would solve a lot of problems with electric cars, mobile computers, and a lot of other things as well.

Unfortunately the media gives us the wrong impression of a scientist. As someone who can just come up with a wonderful device out of nowhere. While real scientist often the best scientists may spend their lives researching a dead end idea, because if proven it can solve a lot of problems.

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[drinkypoo]

Unfortunately the media gives us the wrong impression of a scientist. As someone who can just come up with a wonderful device out of nowhere.

The schematic for practical creation of AC power came to Tesla in a vision during a stroll on the beach, while reciting poetry IIRC. Tesla wasn't just "a scientist". He was special.

Most science probably comes from normal people doing things the hard way, I'm not trying to detract from your statement. But some people have minds which work differently from others...

Re: Rolling in his grave

[IdanceNmyCar]

"There is a thin line between genius and insanity - I have erased this line."

At the end of Teslas life he wanted to marry a pigeon and spoke of the birds having laser eyes. Keeping these people sane enough to be of value to society while respecting their individuality seems to be the lesson I see the most from Tesla's life. This is the tragedy that befalls people like Tesla, Turing, and maybe even comparably Aaron Swartz.

Interestingly enough we now know there is a protein with quantum properties involved w

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[Bradac_55]

Why would you put Swartz with those? He didn't create anything all he did was download pacer files illegally and then commit suicide instead of going to prison. Hardly as note worthy as what the other two did with there lives.

Re: Rolling in his grave

[IdanceNmyCar]

They are all examples of misunderstood individuals. The point was these classic examples still have modern parralels.

The greatest leaps in science are essentially behind us with the modern leaps more in engineering and applying. These are the kind of leaps made by people like Musk.

Aaron Swartz created nothing of paramount significance but was influential in ideas that do have widespread usage including Reddit and markdown. The research his downloads were focused on was probably for correlating the corrupt

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[cusco]

there has been correlation to exist between childhood lukemia and high tension power lines

**sigh**

Erin Brockovich is a sleazebag who works with a bunch of sleazy lawyers to scam people who are not educated enough to realize there isn't any merit to their case. Their standard method of operation is to find a cluster of some sort of illness (a lot of cancer clusters are simple statistical artifacts), create a class action suit claiming damage from whatever the richest industry in the vicinity is, and threaten to go to the press (especially shortly before the company's annual report to maximize th

Re:Rolling in his grave

[jellomizer]

I think he might be slightly annoyed that it took 78 years after his death for his name to get some recognition. But I think he would actually be kinda happy that his name is related to the marketing of High-Tech new products, while the Name Edison is associated to light bulbs that no one wants anymore (except for the extreme right, because for some reason light bulbs are a political statement), and basically considered old fashion tech.

Granted there is a big difference between the Companies of Tesla and Nikola, basicly the fact that one company actually produces a product, while the other just scams people out of its money. So I figure that will balance his grave spinning.
     

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[garyisabusyguy]

I think that he is waiting for his licensing payments from Westinghouse to build a remotely powered cyborg body and lay his enemies to waste

Powersports

[Type44Q]

Nikola has shuttered its so-called Powersports division

There were rumors they were going to be closing their Watersports division, but they were just taking the piss.

Nikola is dead

[flyingfsck]

After the fraud thing, GM dropped them like a hot potato and nobody in their right mind will now work with them.

Hyogen Fuel cells not good for consumer devices

[jellomizer]

From Light Trucks, Cars, and recreational vehicles a large battery pack is probably going to be a lot better than a Fuel Cell.
It is primarily due to the fact, that consumer devices you probably would prefer to charge up at home. This is something that a lot of electric car owners today like. While they may get 200 usable miles from their electric car, for 90% of their driving they charge up at home, and leave on a "full tank".
This is useful because the Electric Charging Infrastructure needed will not have

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[drinkypoo]

The thing about heavy trucks is that they make battery swaps practical. The fuel tanks on diesel trucks hang off the outside of the frame in a highly accessible location. It would be trivial to roll up on the side of a truck with a fork lift, take off an old pack and stow it, then roll up again with a charged pack.

The only really good thing about fuel cells is that you only need a relatively small battery, and right now we can't make enough batteries to fill potential demand for EVs. So fuel cells may have

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[jellomizer]

Battery Swaps are just a bad idea. Hydrogen tank swaps are much better idea.

Battery swap would give a high variance in battery quality after each swap. The first swap may give you 500 miles, the second swap may give you 400 miles, because they are older batteries that have lost some of its range. A Tank filled to the correct PSI will probably still work. Much better.

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[willy_me]

It would be trivial to roll up on the side of a truck with a fork lift, take off an old pack and stow it, then roll up again with a charged pack.

How are you going to manage that in the middle of the night at a card-lock fill station? It would require an attendant to ride said forklift and swap your battery. The Hydrogen solution actually works better in this scenario. It is one of the few applications of Hydrogen fuel that actually makes sense.

$80K for an electric ATV?!?

[RogueWarrior65]

Jeez, a fully loaded Polaris RZR is around $20K. Who are they trying to kid?

Re: $80K for an electric ATV?!?

[paul_engr]

Polaris and Zero signed an agreement to license Zero electric powertrain last year. I would guess we'll see a sub-$30k electric RZR in the next year or two. Nikola was always a smoke and mirrors show.

Good to see that this scam is starting to unravel

[The_Assimilator]

The world needs working alternatives to internal combustion vehicles, not snake oil salesmen tarnishing the whole field of electric vehicles. The sooner that this particular snake oil company goes under, the better.

I would hate to be one person right now

[paul_engr]

The guy who originally worked on the electric jetski was acquired by Nikola and appointed director of power sports or something like that. He had virtually zero relevant experience with electric powertrain, and the unit(s) he had built was/were simply cannibalized Zero guts with a customized water jacketed motor stator. His claim to fame was manufacturing the jetski hulls prior to doing that prototype. I have to assume Nikola ain't gonna cut him loose to return to actually building stuff and make his pro