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Tesla Semi rival Nikola targets $1B financing round amid $380M worth of new truck orders
As the company prepares to unveil working prototypes of its hydrogen-electric trucks next year, trucking startup Nikola Motor has announced that it recently completed an “oversubscribed” Series C funding round, which began last August. In a statement on Twitter, the company noted that it had received an additional $105 million from investors, bringing the total Series C funding round financing to over $205 million.
Nikola CEO and founder Trevor Milton noted in a statement to trucking publication Freightwaves that the company’s initial goal for its Series C funding round was $150 million. Inasmuch as its recent financing round was successful, though, Milton stated that the startup’s target next year would be even bigger — a $1 billion round that would likely start in the first quarter of 2019.
“It’s primarily for prepping the truck for full production. We’re going to start a $1B round in the first quarter of next year. It usually takes around 4-5 months to complete a round that big and that will go to the factory and everything else,” Milton said.
@nikolamotor has oversubscribed its C round financing at $1.1BB pre money valuation. This week we closed and received an additional $105MM bringing the total C round financing to over $205MM.
— Nikola Corporation (@nikolamotor) November 14, 2018
Nikola expects to break ground for its Arizona-based factory sometime next year. Milton notes that the facility would be tasked with manufacturing the company’s Nikola One sleeper and Nikola Two daycab once the vehicles are ready to enter production. Over the next six years, the trucking startup expects to spend about $6 billion to develop the facility. The $1 billion funding round for 2019 is expected to allow the company to deploy working units of its vehicles on US roads.
“The year 2019 is going to be a pretty amazing year because you are going to see all the products out on the road. The biggest criticism is when are you going to have trucks on the road? We’re really trying to help the industry, and you can’t do that if the truck can’t pull a load,” Milton said.
With its Series C funding completed, Nikola is now dedicating its efforts to its upcoming Nikola World 2019 exhibition, which is set to unveil a working prototype of the Nikola Two. A sample unit of the Nikola Tre, a new truck the company announced for the European and Australian markets, would also be available in the event.
While Nikola’s vehicles boast excellent specs, the company would have to establish a network of hydrogen refueling stations across the United States and Europe for its trucks to become a viable alternative to diesel-powered trucks. That said, the company has stated that it would have hydrogen coverage in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia by 2028. Within that timeframe, Nikola has announced that it would become America’s “largest energy consumer.”
For now, though, Nikola Motor remains optimistic, announcing that the Tre, its truck for the European and Australian market, has received $380 million worth of orders within the first five days since it was announced. The company also plans to start building its hydrogen network in 2020.
The United States’ trucking industry is ripe for disruption. Thus, vehicles form upstart companies such as Nikola and trucks from established electric car makers such as Tesla would likely accelerate the transition of the long-haul industry into the zero-emissions era. Considering the progress of the companies so far, though, the Tesla Semi, which is currently undergoing testing and expected to “earnestly” begin production sometime in 2020, would likely be saturating the market by the time Nikola’s hydrogen-electric trucks start rolling off the production line.
Tesla Cybertruck Lead Engineer Wes Morrill revealed the company has made several changes to the all-electric pickup, which he calls a “living thing, constantly evolving and improving.”
Cybertruck is manufactured at Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas just outside of Austin, and over the past few years, Tesla has continued to make small changes to the pickup to improve everything from cost, reliability, serviceablility, and manufacturability.
“The finish line isn’t getting to production. A product is a living thing, constantly evolving and improving,” Morrill added.
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Some of those changes are yet to be revealed, but perhaps the most notable one was the change Tesla made to the aero shield that sits underneath the truck. In the past, it was aluminum, but now the Cybertruck is using a self-reinforcing polypropylene.
Morrill said that the polypropylene is “stretched into fibers and then laminated into the form,” and is much more durable, much lighter, and significantly cheaper than aluminum when it is manufactured this way.
It also enabled some improvements in the geometry of the Cybertruck, improving the manufacturing around the bolts and edges, in addition to minor form changes. These all benefitted the Cybertruck in more ways than one: specifically with durability and improved drag.
I was surprised by how interested people were to find out we made a relatively benign change to the Cybertruck aero shield, a part of the car most people never even see. So I’ll share some more details.
Here are two photos, the left is one of the latest trucks off the… pic.twitter.com/F5cZo2CZKf
— Wes (@wmorrill3) September 7, 2026
Typically, Teslas are not necessarily identified by model year because these changes are fluid and occur when the company sees fit to implement them. It is not like other automotive companies, which usually make sweeping manufacturing changes when building a new model year.
Instead, Teslas are recognized by their “generation” or “era.” For example, those with a newer Model Y might refer to their car as a “Juniper.” This is the same with Model 3, as many refer to the new body style as the “Highland.”
Tesla’s manufacturing changes are proof of the company’s constant need to improve its products and move things forward with its vehicles. There is no need to drag one’s feet and wait until next year if the product can be made better right now, and that’s precisely what Tesla did with the Cybertruck.
Elon Musk
Tesla Cybercabs narrowly miss deadly Amazon cargo plane crash
An Amazon cargo plane crash near Miami’s airport stopped feet from dozens of Tesla Cybercabs.
An Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 cargo jet overran the runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday afternoon, killing five people and injuring five more. The jet, operated by North Carolina based carrier 21 Air as Flight 7598, touched down around 2 p.m. after arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, then crossed the airport perimeter, plowed across NW 67th Avenue and struck multiple vehicles before catching fire, according to the Associated Press.
Photos and video from the scene show the aircraft’s nose stopped within meters of a fenced staging lot holding dozens of gold painted Tesla Cybercabs, the steering wheel free robotaxi Tesla began putting on public roads in Austin last week. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue has confirmed the plane struck “multiple vehicles” but has not said whether any Cybercabs were among them, and neither Tesla nor airport officials have addressed the fleet directly.
The Cybercabs had not yet entered commercial service in Miami. Tesla’s existing Robotaxi operation there runs on modified Model Y vehicles and has been unsupervised since Ashok Elluswamy confirmed the detail on X in July.
Footage of the plane crash from earlier today | #ONLYinDADE pic.twitter.com/iGoOtnd6cD
— ONLY in DADE (@ONLYinDADE) September 6, 2026
Elon Musk offered the briefest of reactions. Replying to a Zero Hedge post about the Cybercabs sitting so close to the wreckage, he wrote a single word: “Weird.” He has not commented further, and Tesla has not issued a statement.
The timing puts Tesla’s newest vehicle near an unrelated but highly visible tragedy just days after its Austin debut, a launch that had already drawn scrutiny from federal regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit how Tesla certified the Cybercab as compliant with federal vehicle safety standards, a process Teslarati covered after the vehicle’s September 3 launch event. That inquiry concerns the car’s lack of a steering wheel and pedals, not the Miami crash.
Investigators from the FAA and NTSB are focused on the plane, not the parking lot beside it. Flight data reviewed by outlets including Simple Flying show the 767 touched down around 170 knots, well above the 135 to 140 knot range typical for the aircraft, though investigators have not determined a cause. Amazon said it is working with authorities and that its priority is the safety of everyone affected.
Whether any Cybercabs were damaged, and what Tesla plans for the fleet parked near one of the country’s busiest airports, remain open questions.
Tesla has reached a notable benchmark in its autonomous driving program after its Robotaxi fleet surpassed one million miles of unsupervised operation. The company made the announcement during its Cybercab event in Austin on September 3.
Tesla Vice President of AI Ashok Elluswamy told attendees he was happy to report the fleet had achieved one million miles of unsupervised Robotaxi operation as a testament to safety.
The new total marked a sharp increase from the 380,000 unsupervised miles Tesla disclosed during its second-quarter 2026 earnings update in late July.
In roughly six weeks, the company added about 620,000 miles. That acceleration followed Tesla’s decision to remove in-vehicle safety monitors from most of its operations outside the San Francisco Bay Area.
Credit: Tesla
Tesla first launched Robotaxi service in Austin in June 2025 with safety drivers present. It later began fully unsupervised rides and expanded into Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. The San Francisco Bay Area remains the exception, where a safety monitor still rides in the vehicle under California permitting rules.
The company has not released a city-by-city breakdown of the one million unsupervised miles.
The milestone arrived as Tesla began offering public Cybercab rides in Austin. The purpose-built vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals and is designed only for autonomous ride-hailing. Production versions joined the existing fleet of modified Tesla vehicles already operating in the service.
Tesla’s unsupervised mileage is growing at a double-digit weekly rate according to earlier company comments, yet its fleet size remains modest compared with established competitors. Waymo has accumulated more than 200 million fully autonomous rider-only miles. Tesla has described its own unsupervised operations as having recorded zero notable incidents in the period leading up to the July update.
The one-million-mile figure reflects Tesla’s shift from supervised testing to broader driverless service in multiple states. It also highlights the company’s strategy of using both existing Model Y vehicles and the new Cybercab to scale its network.
Credit: Tesla
Whether the rapid recent growth continues will depend on further city expansions, regulatory approvals, and the performance of the purpose-built Cybercab in everyday paid rides. Tesla has not specified how many of the latest miles involved the new vehicle versus the rest of the fleet.
The announcement underscores Tesla’s progress toward a larger robotaxi network while illustrating the remaining gap in total autonomous experience relative to longer-operating rivals.
Tesla Cybertruck engineer reveals new changes in ‘constantly evolving’ pickup
Tesla Cybercabs narrowly miss deadly Amazon cargo plane crash
