Nikola introduces its electric truck, the Nikola One

by Truck West

SALK LAKE CITY, Utah – Nikola Motor Company unveiled its new electric semi-truck, the Nikola One, Dec. 1 in Salt Lake City.

With a fully electric drivetrain powered by high-density lithium batteries, energy for the Nikola One is supplied on-the-go by a hydrogen fuel cell and gives the vehicle a range of 800-1,200 miles between fill-ups and achieves around 15-20 mpg with zero emissions with a full load.

The electric offering boast over 1,000 horsepower and 2,000 ft./lbs of torque, what Nikola says is nearly double that of any semi-truck on the road.

The company said there has never been a model Class 8 truck in production that has both achieved best-in-class fuel efficiency while also improving performance over its diesel completion, all with zero emissions.

“The desire to be 100% emissions free in the US 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,” said Nikola CEO Trevor Milton. “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.”

The company said reservations for the Nikola One totaled nearly $3 billion in the first 30 days of availability.
The leasing program will include unlimited hydrogen fuel, warranty and scheduled maintenance during a 72-month term.

Nikola plans to create a network of hydrogen fueling stations across Canada and the US, numbering more than 300 giving the company the largest hydrogen network in the world. Construction on the stations is set to begin January 2018.

Nikola One.
Nikola One.

Battery-powered

Nikola also announced its 107 kWh upgradable battery pack for its electric UTV, the Nikola Zero, during the Dec. 1 event.

“Our battery engineers have made major advances in storage and cooling,” said Milton. “We believe our lithium packs, which should be available next year, are more energy dense and weigh less than any vehicle production pack in the world. To give you an idea, we believe our pack could propel a BMW i3 over 400 miles on a single charge and still fit within the i3 chassis. Our new design should also allow us to fit approximately 125 kWh or more in the Tesla Model S battery envelope.”


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