The crazy part is how a hacked-together prototype wouldn't even be that hard for a company the size of Nikola. Trucks already exist. So too do hydrogen fuel cells, electric motors, batteries, and high pressure gas tanks. Just take all those components and hack them together into a working first generation prototype truck, and get some on the road.
Tesla did a great job of this in its earliest years on far less funding than Nikola has now. They took existing cars (Lotus Elises) and all they had to do was put in batteries and electric engines. You have to walk before you can run, which Tesla did and Nikola seems to be failing to do. Jumping straight to building an entire truck is lunacy.
I think you're right from the company's point of view, but I'm still glad that they didn't manage to hack together high-pressure hydrogen tanks into a truck and release it into public roads. Now that's a literal "move fast and break things" stuff.
I would take a handful of "hacked together" hydrogen tanks on trucks - especially given how safe they are now - over hundreds of thousands of idiots allowing their "full self driving" vehicle to "drive" itself.
Tesla did a great job of this in its earliest years on far less funding than Nikola has now. They took existing cars (Lotus Elises) and all they had to do was put in batteries and electric engines. You have to walk before you can run, which Tesla did and Nikola seems to be failing to do. Jumping straight to building an entire truck is lunacy.