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The stock of Nikola Motor Corporation (NKLA: NASDAQ), the electro-hydrogen car start-up, has been on a wild ride for the last week. The company's Founder Trevor Milton says he welcomes investigations into allegations by the short-selling, mud-slinging Hindenburg Research group. 

It was an interesting week. Milton has always claimed to be Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA)  and Elon Musk's biggest competitor. With the announcement that General MotorsCompany (NYSE: GM)  and Nikola had a deal, both of the company's stocks soared. It was a bad week for Tesla's stock.

Just days after the announcement that Nikola had landed a very favorable strategic partnership with GM, controversy ensued. Nikola's stock suffered an 11% decline on Thursday. It dropped an additional 15% during the morning trading on Friday.

Billion-dollar concept company

The Phoenix-based Nikola started in 2014 and quickly targeted the commercial and pickup-truck market.

Since its inception, Nikola was chasing Tesla and insisting that it is the electric car company with a unique concept. The company claimed to be the pioneer in the zero-emissions truck engine. 

Nikola’s vision included using hydrogen rather than the Tesla standard electricity to power it’s trucks. The plan was to have a worldwide hydrogen fueling network with H2 stations available everywhere.

In December 2016, the company presented to the public its prototype Nikola One truck. Before, during, and after the unveiling event, Milton repeatedly claimed the truck was “fully functional”. But now it’s clear, that there was a lot more  “smoke and mirrors” than hydrogen powering the truck.

The truck didn't have a hydrogen fuel cell, or for that matter, any motors and gears to drive the wheels.

Perhaps Hindenburg's most damaging allegation is, that a year later, in January 2018, the Nikola One truck still wasn’t functional. The video that appears to show the truck was driving was actually rolling downhill. Critics are questioning whether the Nikola One was operational.

In a September 14 press statement, the company said, “Nikola One was an incredibly successful proof of concept.”

Nikola went public on June 4. This followed a reverse merger with VectoIQ Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: VTIQ), a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The newly infused Nikola debuted with a $12 billion market value. Less than a week later it mushroomed to $30 billion.

Mary Chan, the Chief Operating Officer, and Managing Partner of VectoIQ, LLC. worked for GM in 2012 as President, Global Connected Consumer.

General Motors and Nikola ink a landmark deal 

On September 8, Nikola and General Motors announced a merger. The deal would give GM 11% ownership in Nikola. In turn, GM is going to produce Nikola’s wild fuel cell pickup truck by the end of 2022.