If you look at the HN discussion about Nikola four years ago, it's filled with people pointing to the copycat name as a redflag. So even without hindsight, this was obvious.

> They could have tried a little harder with the name. It makes me take them less seriously with a copycat name like they're not confident enough in their product and need to glom onto Tesla's success. What an awful decision. The truck looks neat, though.

Response to the above:

> I don't think that truck is ever seeing the light of day; the name and the rest of it all seems incredibly unlikely to materialize except as some money in someone's pockets."