Nikola One truck video

Nikola One truck video
	MANIPULATED MEDIA
	"A 2018 promotional video titled "Nikola One in Motion" shows Nikola's hydrogen-electric semi-truck driving under its own power on a highway."
Domain	Business, Finance & Scams
Tactic	Manipulation; Fraud or Scam;
Era	Current
First seen	2018
Origin	Promotional video released by Nikola Corporation in January 2018; the company's founder, Trevor Milton, made related claims about its technology
Last reviewed	2026-10-26
	Further reading: books on Business, Finance & Scams

The Nikola One truck video was a promotional video released in January 2018 by Nikola Corporation, a start-up developing hydrogen and battery-electric trucks. Titled "Nikola One in Motion," it appeared to show the company's prototype semi-truck cruising down a highway. In 2020 a report by short seller Hindenburg Research revealed that the truck had no working drivetrain: it had been towed to the top of a hill and allowed to roll down, and the camera had been tilted to hide the slope. Nikola acknowledged that the truck was not moving under its own propulsion. Founder Trevor Milton was later convicted of securities and wire fraud for misleading investors about the company's technology. He was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2025.

The claim

Nikola was founded in 2014 by Trevor Milton, who described a future of zero-emission trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells, supported by a network of hydrogen stations the company would build. The Nikola One semi-truck was unveiled at a glitzy event in December 2016. The 2018 video, which was posted online and viewed widely, showed the truck traveling along a road with dramatic music, suggesting it was a working vehicle.

Milton made many other public claims, in interviews, on podcasts and on social media, including that Nikola had developed its own key technologies, such as batteries and inverters, that it could produce hydrogen at very low cost and that it had substantial orders.

Origin

Nikola became a public company in June 2020 by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, a route that allowed it to list on the stock market without a traditional initial public offering. Investor enthusiasm for electric vehicles was high, and Nikola's share price surged, briefly giving it a market value above that of Ford, even though it had produced almost no vehicles and had little revenue. In September 2020 General Motors announced a partnership with Nikola.

What the evidence shows

On September 10, 2020, Hindenburg Research, an investment firm that bets on falling share prices, published a report titled "Nikola: How to Parlay An Ocean of Lies Into a Partnership With the Largest Auto OEM in America." Drawing on documents, recordings, photographs and interviews with former employees, it alleged that Nikola had misled investors about many aspects of its technology. Its most vivid claim concerned the 2018 video: according to former employees and text messages, the truck lacked a functioning powertrain, had been towed up a gentle slope on a remote road in Utah and released to roll downhill, and the video had been filmed at an angle that disguised the incline.

Nikola initially called the report a "hit job." It then acknowledged that the truck had not been driving under its own propulsion and said it had never claimed otherwise, describing the video as showing the truck "in motion." Milton resigned as executive chairman later that month. General Motors scaled back its proposed deal.

In 2021 Nikola agreed to pay $125 million to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that it had misled investors about its products, technical advancements and commercial prospects. The SEC said Milton had made false and misleading statements about matters including the truck video, the company's in-house technology, hydrogen production costs and its order book.

Federal prosecutors charged Milton with securities and wire fraud. In October 2022 a jury in New York convicted him on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud. In December 2023 he was sentenced to four years in prison, and he remained free while appealing. In March 2025 President Trump granted him a full pardon. Separately, Nikola, which had struggled to scale production and faced recalls, filed for bankruptcy in February 2025.

Why it persists

The Nikola video is a frequently cited example of misleading promotion during a period of investor excitement about clean technology and SPACs:

Visual implication. The video did not explicitly state that the truck was driving under its own power. It implied it, and viewers drew that conclusion.
Hype outrunning reality. Investors valued Nikola as if its technology was proven, based largely on promises.
Lighter scrutiny. Going public through a SPAC involved less traditional scrutiny than an IPO, and promoters could make forward-looking claims more freely.
Short sellers as investigators. As in other cases, a short seller with a financial interest in exposing problems did the investigative work that others had not.

Lessons for readers

Ask what a video actually shows, not what it seems to imply.
Distinguish between prototypes, demonstrations and production-ready products.
Market value is not proof of a working product.
Be cautious when a company's founder makes sweeping claims on social media.
Consider reports from critics, including short sellers, on their evidence, while remembering their incentives.

Sources

Hindenburg Research, "Nikola: How to Parlay An Ocean of Lies Into a Partnership With the Largest Auto OEM in America," September 10, 2020.
US Securities and Exchange Commission, "Nikola Corporation to Pay $125 Million to Resolve Fraud Charges," press release, December 21, 2021.
US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, press releases on the conviction and sentencing of Trevor Milton (2022–2023).
Reporting on the presidential pardon of Trevor Milton, March 2025 (multiple outlets).