Michael Lohscheller becomes the new President of Nikola Motor

New President of Nikola Corporation will be the former Opel Chief Michael Lohscheller. He will report to CEO Mark Russell in the future and will be responsible for expanding Nikola's global truck business.

Michael Lohscheller brings several decades of direct experience in the automotive industry to our already well-established leadership team at Nikola. His role will be crucial as the Nikola Tre BEV goes into production and we achieve series maturity for the Nikola Tre FCEV. (Mark Russell)

Years of Industry Experience

The native of Münsterland, Lohscheller, held leadership positions in the areas of finance, technology, procurement, and logistics at Volkswagen from 2004 onwards, before becoming Executive Vice President of the Volkswagen Group of America in 2008. In 2012, he joined Opel, where he rose to the position of Managing Director in 2017. Most recently, Lohscheller had a brief four-month tenure as CEO of Vietnam's first automobile manufacturer, VinFast.

As Nikola enters global production, an experienced and respected industry veteran like Michael Lohscheller strengthens our team. He is familiar with the production floors, boardrooms, and showrooms and has worked with the latest technologies throughout his career. (Stephen Girsky, Chairman of the Nikola Corporation)

It goes without saying that hydrogen-powered fuel cells and battery-electric zero-emission vehicles are the future of mobility. I am very proud to join a company that is paving the way for this global transformation. (Lohscheller)

During his tenure as Opel CEO, Lohscheller received several accolades, including Eurostar 2019 (Automotive News), Manbest 2019 (Autobest), and Manager of the Year 2019 (AutoZeitung).

What does this mean?

After Opel and a brief stint at VinFast, Lohscheller is now on board at Nikola - hopefully for longer than his previous employer.