Sparks Motors owner Dave Sparks made the surprising announcement this week that he has reached an agreement with Nikola to acquire the rights to put the mothballed Badger electric pickup into production.
The “Diesel Brothers” star revealed the news in a YouTube video.
The Nikola Badger was first announced in 2020, but shelved by the end of the year as the company dealt with allegations of fraud levied by short-seller Hindenberg Research.
After Nikola founder Trevor Milton stepped down from his position as CEO and gave up direct involvement managing the company, Nikol arefocused its efforts on commercial heavy electric and hydrogen fuel cell-powered heavy trucks.
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Sparks was involved in developing the Badger with Nikola and plans finish the job through a new company set up for the project called Ember, but hasn’t released an exact timeline for when it could go on sale or its target specifications.
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He did say he still intends to offer it with both battery and fuel cell powertrains, which is what Nikola was working on when the project was idled.
Sparks has what he says are two working prototypes, but it’s not clear what powertrain technology they feature. He mentions a mix of original and off-the-shelf equipment in the vehicle build. However, Nikola had reached an agreement with General Motors to build the Badger on the Ultium electric vehicle platform, which underpins the Hummer EV pickup, and to use GM’s Hydrotech fuel cell technology, but that deal fell apart within weeks of its announcement due to Nikola’s issues, more than a year before the Hummer entered production.
Prior to that, Milton said the Badger’s powertrain would have 908 hp and 980 lb-ft of torque, and that it would be able to accelerate to 60 mph in 2.9 seconds with the aid of supercapacitor technology, but it was never demonstrated in this spec.
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Nikola was also aiming for an 8,000-pound towing capacity, the ability to climb a 50% grade, a range of 300 miles for the all-electric model and a 600-mile range for the fuel cell version.
The Hummer EV pickup is available with up to 1,000 hp, a 7,500-pound towing capacity and 314 miles of range.
Sparks has not responded to an email request for comment, but said in the video that he would be releasing more information through the YouTube channel in the coming weeks.
