September 2020

Nikola has delayed a long-awaited event to showcase its vehicles and battery technology, as the start-up battles a crisis that led to the departure of its founder Trevor Milton.

The Arizona-based company said on Wednesday that its “Nikola World” event in December, where it was set to demonstrate vehicles including the Badger pick-up truck, has been postponed, without giving a new date.

While Nikola pointed to Arizona’s restrictions on large gatherings in light of the pandemic, the delay comes as the group tries to win back investors’ confidence after a short-seller earlier levelled allegations of fraud against a company that was briefly one of the hottest stocks on Wall Street.

In a long statement on Wednesday, seemingly designed to reset expectations and clarify timelines for a company that only went public in June, Nikola detailed its projects and their progress. It reconfirmed key dates in its product development, including the launch of its first truck to be manufactured by Iveco in Germany late next year. The group said it is also on track to begin production at a facility in Arizona in 2022.

The market value of Nikola has collapsed since a report from short-seller Hindenburg Research on September 10

Andy Bounds in Huddersfield

The leaders of three of northern England’s biggest cities have called for the government to relax coronavirus restrictions it has imposed on them, which they say are wrecking the region’s economy.

The letter from Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester councils increases pressure on the government, whose own MPs are pressing for looser measures.

In a letter to health secretary Matt Hancock and business secretary Alok Sharma, the leaders and chief executives of the cities in northern England say that hotel occupancy is at around 30 per cent normal levels and footfall has dropped by more than two-thirds during local lockdown measures.

Because of higher coronavirus transmission rates, the three northern cities – which are major urban hubs in the government’s northern powerhouse plan – have to follow stricter coronavirus rules than in London.

They all, for example, have had bans on households mixing with each other in private homes or gardens. These rules were implemented by the central government in Westminster.

In Liverpool, one of the UK’s most deprived cities, the leisure and hospitality sector accounts for a fifth of the economy and provides half of the £270m in annual business rates, a property levy that funds