--- title: "Remember That Hydrogen-Powered Cybertruck Killer? It’s Officially Dead" description: "Tesla competitor Nikola Motors has officially announced that its deal with General Motors to produce its hydrogen-electric pickup called the Badger is off." date: "2020-11-30" modified: "2020-11-30" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nikola-motors-gm-badger-deal-dead" categories: - "Advanced Transport" tags: - "cybertruck" - "hydrogen cars" - "nikola" - "nikola motors" - "tesla" - "the digest" --- # Remember That Hydrogen-Powered Cybertruck Killer? It’s Officially Dead ![Tesla competitor Nikola Motors has officially announced that its deal with General Motors to produce its hydrogen-electric pickup called the Badger is off.]() *\Image: Nikola Motors\* ## RIP Badger Tesla competitor Nikola Motors has [officially conceded]() that its high-profile deal with General Motors to produce a hydrogen-electric pickup called the Badger won't be going through as planned. GM will also not take a stake in Nikola, which was part of of the original partnership plans. It's the latest installment in a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year for the zero emissions vehicle maker. Nikola shares plunged [more than 20 percent]() on Monday morning after news broke of the scrapped Badger. ## Motor Mouth While Nikola has focused most of its efforts on [developing a hybrid hydrogen-electric semi truck](), the company made a big splash in February when it [announced the Badger](), an electric pickup truck designed to take on Tesla's Cybertruck. Nikola started taking reservations for the truck in June, [sending shares soaring](). GM first [announced the contract]() to manufacture the Badger in early September, but many details surrounding the deal were kept under wraps. Just two days following the announcement, a short-selling firm [made scathing claims]() about Nikola, calling the company "an intricate fraud built on dozens of lies over the course of its Founder and Executive Chairman Trevor Milton’s career." ## Deal's Off Milton [stepped down]() from his leadership role roughly a week later, leaving the startup in tatters. But that doesn't mean Nikola is folding, either — it's going back to its roots with GM's help. "Heavy trucks remain our core business and we are 100 percent focused on hitting our development milestones to bring clean hydrogen and battery-electric commercial trucks to market," Mark Russell, Nikola's latest CEO, said in [today's announcement](). **READ MORE:** [Nikola stock plunges as ambitious GM deal gets scrapped]() \[*Ars Technica*\] **More on the Badger:** *[You Can Now Put Down a Reservation For This Hydrogen-Powered Pickup Truck]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()