Nikola Motor Company is developing a hydrogen-fueled truck that is also powered with some electricity. The American company's new truck has an electric motor like plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) but a fuel cell creates electricity that powers the Earth-friendly motor. Hydrogen-electric vehicles usually have smaller lithium batteries than those of electric cars such as the Tesla Model S because the fuel cells are the paramount power source.
Hydrogen-powered vehicles provide some key benefits. They have longer ranges as well as shorter refueling times than EVs. The drawbacks, however, are creating hydrogen and hydrogen-fueling networks.
Nikola unveiled a hydrogen-electric truck at its Salt Lake City, Utah headquarters on December 1, Thursday to solve those problems. The hybrid truck company claimed its semis have a range of 1,200 miles (1,900 km), which is 90 percent higher than Mercedes' electric truck the German automaker plans to manufacture within the next decade, according to Business Insider.
A stack of hydrogen fuel cells will power the Nikola One truck and a 320-kilowatt hour battery will give its range. The startup company claimed the hydrogen-electric trucks will have over 1,000 horsepower and 2,000 foot-pound of torque.
Nikola Motor Company also shared the new truck will have a refueling time of 15 minutes. That is much faster than plug-in EVs that need at least one hour to charge with a fast-charging network.
Nikola CEO Trevor Milton revealed at the event the green truck will also contain cameras to supply wide views to the driver.
Nikola's hydrogen semi trucks are designed for long-haul goods transport across large areas. It could provide nearly twice the power of today's diesel-powered semi-trailer trucks, according to Ars Technica.
Hybrid-electric vehicles from the "Tesla of trucks" would be game-changer technology. Tesla's Model P100D is the only e-car with a range over 300 miles (483 km), while hydrogen-electric vehicles have ranges up to 400 miles (644 km).
Nikola plans to build a network of 364 hydrogen fueling stations across North America in 2018. That will solve a big problem.
Nikola One announced in May it was building an electric big rig with a natural gas turbine engine. Then in August the designer of Class 8 trucks reported it would build hydrogen fuel cell trucks that produced zero emissions.
Milton noted the company has received $4 billion in reservations for its Nikola One truck. The startup plans to start deliveries in 2020.
Nikola like Tesla Motors is named after the Serbian-American scientist/engineer Nikola Tesla. He is known as the father of modern electricity.
Here's a video of the Nikola One event: