Former Opel CEO Michael Lohscheller becomes Nikola’s new president. The German recently left after a very short period as CEO of Vinfast. The fact that Nikola knows how to attract him is probably a good sign for the discredited company.
The career of Michael Lohscheller, who was CEO of Opel from 2017 to 2021, has run into turbulent waters. Lohscheller started last summer as CEO of the ambitious Vietnamese Vinfast, before leaving there again in December. According to Automobilwoche Lohscheller gave a brief explanation of why he was picking up again so quickly: “I’d put it this way: some things just didn’t quite fit. So I decided to stop early and I think it was best for all stakeholders.” Now Lohscheller has found a new position at Nikola. A start-up that has not exactly remained uncontroversial in recent times.
We know Nikola from the Badger, an electrically powered pick-up with which Nikola managed to arouse such interest that General Motors wanted to do business with the company. It was supposed to team up with Nikola on the Badger, but that deal was shelved at the end of 2020 and that meant a SIDS for the Badger. Rumblings at Nikola, accused of deception by research firm Hindenburg Research, and the subsequent departure of founder Trevor Milton apparently deterred GM enough to reduce the agreement to a non-binding memorandum of understanding.
Nikola Trec
Last summer, despite the end of the Badger, there was another sign of life from Nikola. It is now working on an electrically powered truck, of which AutoWeek managed to find the patent drawing above. A sequel to the 2019 Tre, which Nikola had worked on with Iveco. It will probably get a fuel cell. So it is now up to Lohscheller to lead Nikola into calmer waters and to ensure that some of the plans for the future come to fruition.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl