Were they public or private at the time?

(Because if they were public, that would be a problem...)

let's see - "Nikola Motor Company stock ticker is NKLA. It went public on the NASDAQ on June 4, 2020." (random google search)

but the article indicates "When Nikola Motor Company founder Trevor Milton unveiled a prototype of the Nikola One truck in December 2016, he portrayed it as fully functional."

So there you go!