The California Transport Commission awarded a $41.9 million grant to Nikola Corp NKLA to build heavy-duty hydrogen refueling stations across South California and Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk is not impressed.
What Happened: Musk said on Twitter that California has pushed hydrogen as alternate energy for a long time and it “makes no sense.”
On Thursday, Nikola said that it received the grant to build 6 hydrogen refueling stations across South California. They will be located along California freight corridors within the South Coast Air Quality Management District, San Diego County Air Pollution Control District, and Mojave Desert Air Quality Management District.
Nikola, which now sells battery electric vehicles, said earlier this week that it expects to introduce its hydrogen fuel cell electric truck in the third quarter.
Why It Matters: In late March, Nikola said that it received orders for 100 of its hydrogen cell trucks, thanks to a California Air Resources Board program. The program enabled Nikola Tre FCEV customers to access a point-of-sale incentive starting at $240,000 and ranging up to $288,000 per truck, in 2023, the company said in a statement. In May, the company said that it has received orders for 140 hydrogen fuel cell trucks.
Meanwhile, the Tesla CEO has been critical of Hydrogen for long. In May 2022, he said that the world will overwhelmingly choose batteries over hydrogen for storing energy and termed it "the most dumb thing I could possibly imagine for energy storage."
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