Nikola Motor Company recently announced that it achieved zero emissions with its electric-powered drivetrain. At that time, details about how Nikola achieved zero emissions were kept confidential pending finalization of key supplier agreements.
Now, Nikola is announcing that the electric drivetrain used in the U.S. and Canadian markets will be powered by a custom-built hydrogen-electric 800V fuel cell.
Nikola says its hydrogen class 8 trucks will be more powerful than any other production diesel truck on the road and have a range of over 1,200 miles between fill-ups. It will achieve nearly 20 MPG with zero emissions under full load surpassing all the government mandates set forth for the next 10 years, including the EPA’s recently announced Phase 2 GHG standards.
“The desire to be 100% emission free in the U.S. and Canada is a critical piece of our long-term engineering and environmental efforts, not just in vehicle energy consumption, but also in how energy is produced. Nikola will produce hydrogen via zero emission solar farms built by Nikola Motor Company. These solar farms will produce over 100 megawatts each and will use electrolysis to create hydrogen from water. Even our manufacturing facilities will be run off of zero emission hydrogen energy,” said Trevor Milton, CEO, Nikola Motor Company.
Nikola plans to have a nationwide network of over 50 hydrogen stations for customers to begin fueling by 2020.
“This will make Nikola Motor Company the first company in the world to be 100% emission-free from energy production to transportation to consumption. Say goodbye to the days of dirty diesels and after treatment in the heavy duty class 8 market,” added Milton.
The CNG turbine version of the Nikola One will be available for other countries where hydrogen is not readily available.
In June Nikola announced it had collected $2.3 billion worth of pre-orders (a total of over 7,000 pre-orders) on the big truck.
The Nikola One truck leasing program costs $4000 to $5000 per month, depending on which truck configuration and options the customer chooses. The first million miles of fuel is included with every truck sale, offsetting 100% of the monthly lease for every owner.
The Nikola One will be unveiled on December 1, 2016 in Salt Lake City. Nikola Motor Company passed three billion dollars in pre-orders since it began taking reservations in May of this year. Attendance at this event will be by invite only, but will be streamed live on Nikola’s website.
More information will be announced about Nikola’s nationwide sales, service and warranty network in the coming weeks.
