NKLA Nikola Corporation

By Mike Colias 

General Motors Co. will supply fuel cells to Nikola Corp. for commercial trucks but will no longer take an equity stake in the startup under a stripped-down agreement, Nikola said Monday.

The electric-truck company also said it has scrapped plans to build a pickup truck named the Badger, which had been part of an earlier deal with GM outlined in September. That deal got delayed after a negative short seller's report raised questions about the readiness of some aspects of Nikola's business, allegations the company claimed were false and misleading.

Nikola shares were down 3.4% in premarket trading Monday. GM shares were off about 0.8%.

Under their original deal, GM was to take an 11% equity stake in the Phoenix-based startup in exchange for supplying engineering work and other services. GM also was to engineer and build an electric pickup truck for retail customers, the Badger, using the auto maker's proprietary technology for battery-powered vehicles.

Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 30, 2020 08:53 ET (13:53 GMT)

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