Nikola Highlights Strategy for Present, Future

Nikola Corporation recently issued a statement highlighting the direction of the company’s current strategies and its vision for the future.

“We are pioneering a business model that will enable corporate customers to integrate next-generation truck technology, hydrogen fueling infrastructure and maintenance. By creating this ecosystem, Nikola and its strategic business partners and suppliers can pave the way as global leaders in zero-emission transportation – and, together, leave the world a better place,” read the statement.

Calling itself an innovator and an integrator, Nikola described its business model as combining its intellectual property and proprietary technology with that of its business partners and suppliers. The company is focusing on its three business units:

• Truck: Developing and commercializing battery-electric and fuel-cell Class 8 trucks for short-, medium- and long-haul trucking.
• Energy: Developing and constructing a hydrogen fueling station infrastructure to meet hydrogen fuel demand, as well as potential charging solutions for battery-electric vehicles.
• Powersports: Developing electric vehicles for outdoor recreational applications.

Nikola expects the first five prototypes of the Nikola Tre, its 100% battery-electric truck and joint venture with IVECO, will be “substantially completed” at its facility in Ulm, Germany, in the next few weeks. The prototypes will then be bench tested and road tested in Germany.

“We remain confident in our ability to begin production of the Tre and make it available to customers starting in the fourth quarter of 2021,” according to the statement.

The company also plans to start testing “production-engineered prototypes” of its hydrogen fuel-cell powered semi-trucks for the medium- and long-haul trucking by the end of 2021, with beta prototypes expected to be tested in the first half of 2022. Nikola is also partnering with Nel Hydrogen on hydrogen-producing technology.

Nikola’s 1-million-square-foot manufacturing facility in Coolidge, Arizona, is still in development, with phase one construction on schedule to be completed by the end of 2021 and fully complete by mid-2023. The facility will initially produce battery-electric trucks and then fuel-cell electric trucks, with the capacity to reportedly produce 35,000 Class 8 commercial semi-trucks annually.

Originally posted on Trucking Info