Thread by @Nikola_Truth

🚨THREAD TIME🚨

Nikola has released their pathetic attempt at a rebuttal to the #NikolaGate report and have completely failed to clear their name.

Let’s break this bastard down!
$NKLA $NKLAQ
nikolamotor.com/press_releases…

Before I get into this, I want you all to be familiarised with the term ‘equivocation’. In short: it means to use ambiguous language with the intent to deceive. It’s rampant throughout this whole company and especially in the rebuttal, as you will see.

You’ll also this copy and pasted under every point in the rebuttal despite it often being untrue, ridiculous and nonsensical.

Right then, let’s get into it!

Ok, we all knew Nikola would try to win people over by trying to discredit Hindenburg, calling them manipulative, lying short sellers. Thing is though, that’s entirely irrelevant!

Even if they were dodgy, their points are not invalidated!

Thinking such a thing would be a very clear case of the ‘genetic fallacy’ wherein you dismiss or accept ideas based upon where those ideas come from.

I say this to make the point that Hindenburg’s intentions are irrelevant to their accusations. Please look at the facts!

As it happens, I don’t think for any minute that Hindenburg is here to lie or be manipulative. Whilst I personally don’t like short selling, I acknowledge it has its uses and for Hindenburg it’s how they make their money. Shorting and then reporting is nothing new to them.

Why the fuck would Nikola voluntarily announce the SEC is investigating the fraud allegations? This can’t be good for Nikola!

About fucking time for the SDC though, jeez!

I don’t remember where or when Trevor said this but the actual ‘due diligence’ by a lot of these companies is far less than it initially seems.

For example, Trevor said Bosch only looked at the supply chain, VectoIQ only really looked at the financials, etc.

In fact, I’m pretty sure the only ones who ever properly looked into Nikola’s technology were Worthington Industries but if you believe the prevailing theory that Worthington just wanted their money back from the shit dHybrid Systems deal, it’s doubtful they’d raise concerns.

That end line about the company continuing to make significant progress truly makes no sense though. The only ‘progress’ we’ve seen from Nikola has been in getting potential deals and preliminary permits. Nothing to boast about imo.

This next section is practically just and advert for $NKLA. The fact that Nikola still can’t resist marketing themselves even when they’re meant to be clearing their name is alarming but I’m at the point where it’s not even surprising. It shouldn’t be in this press release.

This is more advertising. Now Nikola says they’ll announce yet another collaboration, reach ‘substantial completion’ (the fuck?) of the Ulm plant this year and Phase 1 of Coolidge next year.

Again, this should not be in a supposed rebuttal to fraud allegations.

Point 1: Bosch

This Bosch thing is probably Nikola’s only decent argument. If Bosch’s clarification of this singular point is accurate then that is obviously an important thing to correct.

However, looking at the quote it seems to me at least that Hindenburg just misunderstood.

I have no idea how thick the Bosch employee’s German accent was but I find the idea that Hindenburg’s inclusion of this point was due to miscommunication and confusion to be far more believable than the idea they intentionally decontextualised the quote.

It would be foolish to make such an easily disproved claim when there are already so many other claims that do stand up to Nikola’s attempted rebuttal. I also know for a fact that Hindenburg left a lot of stuff out when they weren’t 100% sure of it for this exact reason.

Point 2: Cascadia’s Inverters

Wow, Nikola, just wow!
This is truly ridiculous! If you watch the video, , it’s highly suggested that Nikola made the specific inverter on the prototype. For Nikola to argue some bullshit semantic loophole is absurd!

What has me even more concerned is the fact that Nikola says they do this often, meaning there are probably tens more parts Nikola is pretending are their own!

I don’t know about you but I’ve never heard any other company hide the part IDs like that.

I’m probably going to say this every time but Nikola can’t just admit the facts and continue to post the CopyPasta of Hindenburg’s statements being false and manipulative.

Nikola’s projecting so hard it hurts!

Point 3: Whores & Battery Acquisitions

I have no idea whether or not Nikola’s being honest here. Whilst it is possible they sent two Letters of Intent at the same time we have been provided with zero proof of this as Nikola is still suspiciously hiding their partners.

I just see zero reason at all why Nikola would want to hide the identity of this supposed lab team when they have already said the result of any breakthrough will be released to the public anyway.

Why have a trade secret if you just open licence it as soon as it comes out?

Frankly I cannot believe Nikola over this point. The timing is just too perfect for the announcement not to be about ZapGo’s tech and until Nikola gives a dated letter of intent to partner with or acquire the Uni team, there’s no reason to think otherwise about ZapGo.

What I think it most likely is that Nikola are super embarrassed they sent the Letter of Intent to a guy who thought he could get away with writing whores off as a government business expense, an oversight entirely due to Jason Roycht’s incompetence.

After realising Jason’s cock-up, Nikola then panicked and looked for the first lab group they could acquire which had big claims but very low publicity. Then, Nikola gave the professors NDAs and hoped nobody would notice.

I may be wrong though, of course. There’s not actually any evidence that there is a Uni lab working with/for Nikola. At this point I don’t know what to think but what is clear to me is that Hindenburg weren’t trying to lie or deceive and their findings were indeed accurate.

This isn’t done yet btw. Usually takes me another few hours to get it finished.

Point 4: CFO Departure

As anyone with functioning brain cells knows, it’s always dodgy when the CFO suddenly fucks off. It’s *even more* dodgy when said CFO then sues the company he just left!

This is exactly what happened at Nikola.

Alright, fine, the lawsuit did end up being dropped for whatever reason but the guy, Jonathan Spira, must have had good reason to file it in the first place. All we know is that not long after, Nikola refunded all their reservations.

Coincidence? I think not.

Also, something very interesting to note is that Trevor Milton actually claimed @InsiderNikola is Jonathan Spira, the former CFO! This is still unconfirmed and I doubt Nikola Insider will reveal his identity until it’s all over but it does allude to one thing:

Trevor Milton has credible reason to believe that Jonathan Spira has access to incriminating information, the means to spread such information and also the motive.

As I see it, Spira’s lawsuit was well founded and Nikola probably had to do a lot to settle with the guy.

As it relates to Hindenburg though, I don’t think anything they said there was false or misleading. They do imply a connection but Nikola has failed to disprove such a connection, a running theme in this ‘rebuttal’.

Update on this tweet: I wrote this before the news of the SEC investigation hit mainstream media. That should clear up any confusion.

https://twitter.com/nikola_truth/status/1305840448796332034

Also, I spelt SEC wrong lol.
Smile Direct Club has nothing to do with Nikola 😂

Point 5: Roll, roll, roll your truck, gently down the hill!

I don’t think I even need to include Hindenburg’s side in this, you know what they said. Nikola also pretty much admits it and then uses some equivocation bullshit to claim they weren’t lying.

Anyway, what is a pusher? Well, usually it’s something that sits in a showroom to look pretty.

Huh, exactly like the Nikola One then. 🤦🏻‍♂️

It’s actually more embarrassing for Nikola though: the Nikola One was indeed designed to function (though it was configured for Natural Gas

and could never have actually driven as a FCEV) but a Nikola failed to actually make it work, instead having to ‘make the wiring look presentable’.

Let’s look at what did work: gearbox, batteries, inverters and a bunch of other shit (you can read, presumably).

What don’t we see? Fuel cells and hydrogen tanks to start with. They’re pretty key in FCEVs!

Also, no Motors! Not sure if you Tesla fans know this but they’re vital!

Nikola even admits that this thing wasn’t able to propel itself under its own power!

Did they tell anyone at the event? No.
Is it misleading to say something isn’t a pusher when it can’t actually move? Yes.
Did they take thousands of paid preorders for it all the same? Yes!

Maybe I’m delusional but to me that looks exactly like Hindenburg’s point!

I imagine a lot fewer businesses would’ve put money down if they knew it didn’t work and would be abandoned soon after!

(Point 5 Cont. [basically the same point, Nikola pretends the truck can work when it doesn’t])

Ok, let me ask the audience here: when you see a vehicle ‘in motion’, do you
A: think it’s driving under its own power, or
B: think it’s been towed up a hill and allowed to roll down?

If your answer is A, congratulations, you are a normal human!
If your answer is B, you’re probably a bit too skeptical of things.

Unfortunately for the normal humans though, you are also easily deceived. Nikola pretty much confirmed the truck was indeed rolling and not driving, which was Hindenburg’s point in the first place!

You can even try this yourself! #NikolaChallenge

If you are still one of the few enigmas of society who believe Trevor Milton is an honest man and that Nikola wasn’t lying or misleading about the ‘Nikola One in motion’ video, then I have a question for you:
Why didn’t Nikola correct the news outlets?

It’s a running question I have for $NKLA investors. If you think Nikola is honest, why didn’t they clear things up when journalists misreported the facts?

Would you correct someone if you were in that position? I sure hope so, but why didn’t Nikola?

Point 7: No Hydrogen

Let me get this right: Nikola says they make hydrogen at $3/kg (present tense), Hindenburg point out Nikola can’t make any hydrogen at any price (present tense) and Nikola responds with ‘planned ... station network’, ‘will provide’ and the Nel partnership.

You see the problem here, right?

Nikola admits they cannot make hydrogen which means their cost per kg is currently just hopes dreams. This was Hindenburg’s point to begin with and Nikola calls *them* false and misleading!

What the fuck?!

Point 8: NZT

Nikola is really disingenuous in an obvious way here. Hindenburg never claimed the program was scrapped and you can see quite clearly in the 4th image that they really said ‘management scrapped the design’, specifically in reference to the closed top version.

Funnily enough, the version that sits in Nikola’s showroom is a pusher. It was not designed to work as the design they had could not be made to work.

These allegations by the short seller are true and not misleading. Less so of Nikola’s response.

Point 9: Hot Air or Steaming Shit?

Remember when I said the CopyPasta message after each point often made no sense? Yeah, this is a pretty good example of that.

Personally I’m not so arrogant to say outside opinions for myself are irrelevant. Either way though, Hindenburg saying that the expert from Powercell AB thinks Nikola’s tech is ‘hot air’ isn’t in any way false or misleading. The guy literally said that!

Point 10: Pinball Wizard, Golfer Guy and the Subcontractor brother

This is just funny. Nikola’s ‘top talent’ consists of so many horribly under qualified people.
I don’t care what Nikola says, these 3 guys, along with many other Nikola top employees, are way out of their depth!

Point 11: Swift

This speaks for itself really. Let’s have an example all the same.

If I order a £30 mouse on Amazon and then put an £800 computer on my wish list, how much is my order worth?

That’s right, thirty fucking pounds!

I don’t know how anyone buys this bullshit argument from Nikola but if you do, and I don’t like saying this, you are really fucking stupid!

What do you call it when someone says a $16mil contract is worth $250mil? False and misleading! 🤦🏻‍♂️

Alright, so that’s the end of Nikola’s point by point rebuttal. You hopefully noticed that none of Hindenburg’s 53 questions have really been answered and most of their points have been ignored.

Will Nikola ever address them? Who knows. Maybe the SEC will make them answer.

It’s not over yet though!

Nikola says there are ‘dozens more inaccurate allegations... not relevant to Nikola’. Whilst this is partially true, they do paint a very bad picture of Nikola’s figurehead Trevor Milton and Nikola has already addressed one ‘not relevant’ allegation.

Why they choose to address the allegation about the Swift contract and then claim they don’t have to address the other dHybrid and pre-Nikola allegations makes zero sense. This is obviously highly cherry-picked!

The last paragraph is mainly just more advertising except for two telling details.

First, ‘Nikola has quickly and nimbly pivoted its business model’. This is actually a common criticism of Nikola. They seemingly reinvent their business model to find whatever people will believe.

Originally they were natural gas until they were forced to pursue something else. That made them choose hydrogen but they soon realised they had no clue what they’re doing in that regard, probably because their hydrogen guy is better adapted to laying pavements.

So now they’re getting other people to build them BEVs. Maybe in the next month they’ll announce an electric jet! There truly is no telling!

The other point is ‘Nikola remains committed to enhancing shareholder value’.

My, oh my! Wow! Nikola is literally admitting their goal is to inflate the stock. Not to defeat Diesel, not to help truckers but to inflate the fucking stock!

Honestly, I’m surprised they admit it!

The last part of the press release is very out of place! The ‘about Nikola’ bit is usually there but the forward looking statements disclosure?!

Either Nikola wants fools to think this document is as official as an SEC filing, which it really isn’t, or Nikola is scared shitless!

You can have a look in their other press releases and there is no Forward Looking Statements Disclosure, at least from what I’ve seen.

To conclude:

Nikola’s ‘rebuttal’ is frankly pathetic. 99% of the time they are just confirming Hindenburg’s allegations whilst simultaneously using some bullshit logical gymnastics to claim Nikola never lied and that Hindenburg’s allegations are false and manipulative.

The constant theme of starting every point with ‘⚫️ Short Seller ...’ and ending it with the ‘False and Misleading’ text is a disturbing attempt to psychologically program $NKLA fans into dismissing Hindenburg by default.

This rebuttal certainly won’t stand up to SEC scrutiny and the Nikola house of cards really is starting to fall down.

Update: Hindenburg has responded to Nikola’s ‘rebuttal’.

https://twitter.com/hindenburgres/status/1305839363264258048