Nikola Inc. is conducting a voluntary recall of more than 200 of its electric vehicles after an investigation into their battery packs.
The company announced late Friday that it would recall about 209 Class 8 Tre battery-electric vehicles (BEV) “as a precautionary measure.” Nikola
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also will pause new BEV sales “temporarily,” though the company’s move doesn’t impact production of its hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV), which have a different design.
Nikola said that Exponent, a third-party investigator, deemed a coolant leak inside a battery pack to be the likely cause of a June 2023 truck fire.
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“Internal investigations from Nikola’s safety and engineering teams indicate a single supplier component within the battery pack as the likely source of the coolant leak and efforts are underway to provide a field remedy in the coming weeks,” the company continued.
Nikola shares were off about 10% in Monday morning action.
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The company said that Tre BEV trucks could remain in operation, though Nikola recommends that customers and dealers place the Main Battery Disconnect in the “on” position and park the trucks outside to allow for over-the-air updates and better connectivity with Nikola’s monitoring system.
Nikola noted that while it initially suspected that “foul play” might have been behind the June fires, “[e]xtensive internal and third party-led hypothesis testing, employee and contractor interviews, and hours of video footage review has since suggested foul play or other external factors were unlikely to have caused the incident.”
Nikola will provide additional information for customers in the coming weeks.
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