Article?|?Dedee
Today, the little aunt is going to tell a story about the "Tiehanhan" currently between Jia Yueting and Musk.
On June 4, hydrogen fuel concept stock Nikola was officially listed.
As of the end of the third day of listing, Nikola's share price has doubled to US$73.27, with a market value of US$26.4 billion (approximately RMB 184.7 billion).
As the company’s largest shareholder and founder, Trevor Milton is worth US$8.1 billion (approximately RMB 56.7 billion), which is not only more than seven times that in 2019, but has also become the world’s most valuable person in the field of hydrogen fuel. the first person.
The next day, Nikola's market value approached US$32 billion, surpassing Ford by US$28.8 billion, becoming the "third largest" car company in the United States, second only to Tesla and General Motors.
It took Tesla seven years to accomplish the above, but Nikola only took three days.
However, just over a month later, Nikola’s market value fell back to US$17.6 billion (approximately RMB 123.1 billion).
Tang Bohu couldn’t bear to experience such violent ups and downs in more than a month!
The most amazing thing is that Nikola is in a Pre-Revenue stage regardless of whether it is listed or not.
Whether it is the 2016 Nikola One and the electric off-road vehicle Nikola Zero, the Nikola Two and Nikola Tre that debuted in April 2018, and the Badger pickup truck that just started pre-sale at the end of last month—— These five cars are all still in the prototype and reservation stages.
Some people say he is the American Jia Yueting, while others say he is the second Musk.
Currently, the little aunt is more willing to believe that Milton is the latter.
Not only because Nikola Zero was actually operated by the US Marine Corps in 2018, the first fully functional Nicola Two truck also appeared on Nikola World last year, and he His work experience, his ideas for building cars, and various "boring" ideas.
Trevor Milton is finally famous.
This middle-aged American man, who is about to be forty, once explained why he was "obligated" to join the new car-making army of the American empire - it came from the car given to him by his father, who was a manager of the Union Pacific Railway. A "train adventure".
That special train trip gave young Milton a keen interest in the mechanical operation of vehicles.
When he was young, Milton was quite similar to Musk. He was also a college dropout. He attended Utah Valley State University for one semester and then dropped out.
However, the reason for dropping out of school may be related to Milton's faith - he is a Mormon. During the gap year before graduating from high school and going to college, he went to Brazil to preach for 18 months.
Not only did he learn Portuguese, he also saw the slums that were separated from the rich areas by a wall. But his focus is not on philosophical issues such as "Why do the rich get richer and the poor get poorer?" but rather on the serious environmental pollution in slums.
"This may be one of the biggest eye-opening things in my life." Milton once lamented.
After graduating from college, Milton founded a free online classified advertising website called upillar.com, and also sold certain alarms. He said he was the founder of this alarm.
(These two entrepreneurial projects now look like leather companies.)
At the age of 29, Milton founded the natural gas truck technology company dHybrid? Systems, LLC. At the time, he defined the new technology company's business as "recalibrating diesel engine emissions and working on natural gas storage technology."
On Thanksgiving four years later, he happened to be on a business trip in the oil fields of North Dakota. He noticed that there were many heavy trucks nearby, so he took the initiative to talk to the drivers.
After chatting, he called his friend who started the business together and complained: "No matter who you are, no one wants to inhale diesel exhaust on the road!"? By the way, he made a decision—— Sold dHybrid and established a completely new energy truck company.
That new energy truck company is Nikola, which has turned the U.S. stock market upside down and caused headaches for both Tesla and Ford.
Trevor Milton regarded Musk as his biggest idol at the beginning of this venture.
At that time, Tesla had been on the market for four years. Although it launched the Roadster and Model?S, it encountered its second darkest moment after the 2008 financial crisis-the sales of Model?S were lower than expected. Huge losses of US$294 million (approximately RMB 2.1 billion), stock prices all the way to the bottom, personnel turmoil in Greater China...
That year, mocking Tesla seemed to be a form of political correctness, as if Last year, I was not optimistic about Weilai, just like Li Bin. A domestic brand favored by stock investor Warren Buffett also stepped in and said: "We can build a Tesla in minutes!"
But Milton doesn't think so. He deliberately named his new company Nikola, not only because he thinks Tesla is an extremely good role model, but also because he is actually quite similar to Musk in many aspects!
For example, he is good at creating topics and "hot spots."
The most famous thing is that not long ago he wildly said that the Badger would "crushed" the Ford F-150, the number one selling fuel pickup truck in the United States!
He is also confident in the future of hydrogen fuel cells and has publicly stated more than once: "As the cost of hydrogen continues to fall, hydrogen fuel trucks have more advantages than pure electric trucks."
Of course, in Musk's view, this person is just a fool who doesn't understand anything.
It wasn’t until May 2018 that he discovered that Tiehanhan was neither iron nor Han—this seemingly unknown company actually dared to sue Tesla? ! In the name of design patent infringement!
The thing is like this:
Didn’t Tesla debut the Semi truck in November 2017? The more “fanboy” Milton looked at it, the more familiar it became. I feel it is too similar to the Nikola One truck released in 2016! For example, the wrap-around windshield, cab shape and side door design...
All the above design companies have applied for patents. Nikola not only initiated a lawsuit, but also requested compensation of US$2 billion (approximately RMB 14 billion).
Musk didn’t take it seriously at all, thinking that Nikola was just a moron who was trying to make a hot topic. However, considering the impact, a request was made to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board in September 2019 to rule that Nikola's side door patent was invalid.
In April this year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office directly rejected Tesla’s application to invalidate the Nikola design patent.
Milton tweeted specifically to thank the "front wave idol" for fueling the matter:
"Tesla lost its appeal to the US Patent and Trademark Office. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office not only supports Nikola’s important truck patents, but also refuses Tesla’s $2 billion compensation lawsuit. We will vigorously defend our company’s IP no matter who it is.”
Of course, his understanding and dedication to hydrogen fuel technology, as well as his considerable professional qualities, also make people think that this person is not just playing around.
When Milton ran dHybrid a few years ago, he already owned a number of hydrogen fuel technology patents.
When working on Nikola, he also made comparisons and believed that pure electric trucks are not suitable for long-distance transportation for three major reasons:
Firstly, it takes longer to charge; secondly, the battery components will definitely be heavier and larger. ; Thirdly, in the southwest region of the United States, the most indispensable thing is solar energy, especially solar energy at noon. Not only is the cost low, it can also be converted into a large amount of hydrogen fuel through water.
It is this idea that led Milton to release the first hydrogen-powered, zero-emission electric semi-trailer tractor prototype Nikola One in 2016, and in April 2018 Nikola Two and Nikola Tre appear.
Take Nikola One as an example. If the hydrogen energy truck is replaced by a lithium-ion battery electric truck of the same weight, if you want to achieve the same driving distance, the battery weight will have to increase by at least 2.2 tons.
However, his idol Musk never thought so.
When he learned that one of his "fanboys" was developing hydrogen energy vehicles with great fanfare, he started mocking Milton, saying that it was a "stupid idea that is not clear-headed" and " "Battery for fools" and gave the reason:
"Hydrogen is an energy storage mechanism, not an energy source. You must first produce hydrogen, such as electrolyzing water, and electrolysis produces energy. Very inefficient. Compared with charging the battery directly, trying to split water to produce hydrogen, then compress and liquefy the hydrogen, and then inject it into the vehicle to start the fuel cell. This process loses energy efficiency. Why? So much trouble?”
Milton’s response was quite smart, and he seemed to have found enough options for Nikola’s future:
“Building a car that uses hydrogen fuel is only part of it. What’s more important is to offer a product that competes with and beats diesel.”
That’s true.
Pre-sale starts at the end of June. The Badger pickup truck, which can accelerate from 100 kilometers to 100 kilometers and is comparable to the Tesla Cybertruck, not only has a hydrogen fuel cell version with a range of 1,000 kilometers, but also a pure electric version with a range of nearly 500 kilometers. .
The similarities between Milton and Musk don’t end there. Especially in the early laying of the hydrogenation network, Nikola's persistence impressed even Tesla.
Milton determined that without a complete hydrogenation network, the development of the hydrogen vehicle industry would be impossible.
It is said that the plunge in mid-July coincided with its application to issue up to 23.9 million new shares to raise a round of new funds of US$1 billion (approximately RMB 7 billion) to speed up the construction of global hydrogen The fuel station supply network is inextricably linked.
During the listing, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission received a planning report from Nikola, which detailed how the company will increase sales 20 times and exceed US$3.2 billion (approximately RMB) in 2024. 22.4 billion) hydrogen energy empire.
The most famous point is the grand plan to build 700 hydrogen production stations in North America in 2028 and 70 more in Europe in 2032. It looks more PPT than Jia Yueting. Jia Yueting!
But Milton has a theoretical basis. He believes that Nikola's feasible commercialization path has two cores: one is to provide a complete hydrogen fuel supply chain; the other is to lower the usage threshold with "all-inclusive" leasing services.
Especially the former is also an important reason why Musk believes that this person is Tiehanhan!
Unlike pure electric vehicles that can be slowly charged at home, work or public parking lots, hydrogen fuel vehicles can only be charged at hydrogen refueling stations and must rely on hydrogen production, hydrogen storage, hydrogen transportation, Hydrogen fuel infrastructure such as hydrogenation.
In response to this problem, Nikola will follow Tesla's good example - if they have a nationwide charging plan, we will build a hydrogenation network.
Nikola has already started cooperating with the Norwegian Nel? Hydrogen Hydrogen Energy Company as early as November 2017. The two parties also signed a purchase agreement totaling more than 30 million US dollars (approximately RMB 210 million). Nel It will support Nikola's five initial hydrogen production stations, achieving a daily hydrogen production capacity of 40 tons.
Milton even has the charm of Musk engaging in boring companies and tequila, seriously imagining the (pseudo) proposition of how to use the "water discharged by Nikola hydrogen fuel cell heavy trucks" - not only It can only be used as a windshield washer fluid, but it can also be purified and used as clean drinking water for drivers.
To this end, Nikola even specifically cooperated with the famous Soda?Stream across borders.
I can guarantee that Jia Yueting definitely does not have such comprehensive comprehensive qualities!
It has been less than 6 years since Nikola was born.
We all seem to have selectively forgotten that Tesla did not produce an excellent mass-produced car from its birth in 2003 until it was launched on June 29, 2010 - until June 2012. The first Model S has just officially rolled off the assembly line.
A full 9 years.
And when it was launched in 2010, Tesla did not have a large vehicle production plant. But in the documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission at the time, they stated that they had reached an agreement with the joint venture of General Motors and Toyota to acquire the Fremont plant. Not long after, the plant started operating and became its largest and largest manufacturer. The vehicle assembly plant with the largest number of models.
What? You said the first-generation Roadster started mass production in 2008?
I can guarantee that this car was definitely one of Musk’s super nightmares back then! If he could, he would rather be strangled to death by Depp's ex-wife than do it in such a hurry at that time.
First of all, the first-generation Roadster cannot be considered an original creation of Tesla. It used the Lotus Elise platform and upgraded the lights, door locks, seats, chassis height, etc. of the original sports car.
Secondly, the cost of this car is as high as US$120,000 (approximately RMB 840,000), which is far from the original cost of US$70,000 (approximately RMB 490,000).
For this reason, Musk had to temporarily raise the price to US$110,000 (approximately RMB 770,000)! This move directly caused many scheduled customers to go berserk - at a customer meeting held in Los Angeles, several buyers jointly attacked Musk and almost knocked him unconscious on the spot!
Many customers who got the car didn’t buy it! The most famous one is George Clooney. In a TV interview in 2013, he directly complained that the Roadster kept breaking down and the service was even worse. He sold the car not long after.
In fact, many people are optimistic about Nikola just like they were optimistic about Tesla back then. As of the end of June, Nikola had received orders for 14,602 hydrogen-fueled heavy-duty trucks, with a total value of US$10.2 billion (approximately RMB 71.4 billion).
There are also many customers of to?B. For example, last year Anheuser-Busch InBev pre-ordered 800 Nikola transport trucks, each priced at up to US$1 million (including fuel).
And it’s not just Milton and his Nikola who are attacking hydrogen fuel.
For example, Hyundai Group’s investment in hydrogen-related projects in recent years has reached US$6.7 billion (approximately RMB 46.9 billion); in July last year, engine manufacturer Cummins invested US$290 million (approximately RMB 46.9 billion). RMB 2 billion) and acquired Hydrogenics, which produces hydrogen fuel cells...
If there is no interference from the epidemic, this year, General Motors and Honda will open a US$85 million (approximately RMB 595 million) building in Michigan. ) fuel cell factory; Toyota will open a refinery in the Port of Long Beach to convert cow manure into hydrogen to power the famous Kenworth super truck, the king of American roads.
It can be seen from the above that hydrogen fuel is not as bad as Musk said, and it does have development potential.
It’s just that the “tiehanhan” who puts all his eggs in one basket is Milton.
It is estimated that Nikola’s production target is 25 vehicles this year and 400 vehicles next year. It’s no wonder that well-known short-seller Andrew Left believes that Nikola Motors will never achieve its goal of mass-producing cars.
In fact, what my little aunt is most happy to see is the explosive news that one day Nikola Badger held a tug-of-war competition at the press conference and Badger dragged away the Cybertruck.
This article comes from the author of Autohome Chejiahao and does not represent the views and positions of Autohome.