Nikola Pushes Ahead With Hydrogen Truck Launch Despite Musk's Skepticism, Unresolved BEV Fire

Nikola Corporation NKLA is aiming to introduce its hydrogen fuel cell electric truck this quarter.

The Nikola Tre Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle: In May, Nikola said that it has received orders for 140 hydrogen fuel cell trucks. These trucks have a maximum range of 500 miles, can provide up to 536 horsepower, and has a fuel time of 20 minutes or less.

Though Nikola will be building the truck, its fuel cell power module will be provided by Bosch in what CEO Michael Lohscheller termed a “vital partnership.”

“We can’t and do not want to do everything ourselves. Our core competence is on the controls and the software,” the CEO told Commercial Carrier Journal at ACT Expo 2023.

Nikola is currently focusing only on North America, with its trucks being solely produced in Coolidge, Arizona.

The fuel cell truck is based on an electric drivetrain similar to the Nikola Tre BEVs. The difference, however, is the system behind the electrical energy which powers the drivetrain.

Why It Matters: Several players in the industry have expressed skepticism over hydrogen as an efficient fuel source with Tesla CEO Elon Musk being one of them.

In May 2022, Musk said the world will overwhelmingly choose batteries over hydrogen for storing energy and termed the latter “the most dumb thing I could possibly imagine for energy storage.”

Nikola is presently under much heat after one of its battery-powered trucks that caught fire last month reignited again on Sunday afternoon at its headquarters in Phoenix.

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Editor’s note: This article erroneously mentioned earlier that Nikola will use a facility in Germany for additional capacity. It has been corrected to reflect that truck production is happening solely in North America.