Nikola Motor Company presents two real trucks and … a new jet ski?

Ars makes every effort to cover his own travel expenses. We covered the flight to Scottsdale, Arizona, but Nikola covered one night at a nearby hotel.

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. – Nikola Motor Company has announced a host of 100% electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles for a cool day in a warehouse surrounded by desert. The company appears to be positioning itself as a "Tesla trucker," serving Budweiser (provided by partner customer Anheuser-Busch) and country music to the same observers and industry investors that Tesla usually courts.

Trevor Martin, CEO of Nikola, spoke about five products Tuesday night and very few really surprised the observers of the company. There were two trucks: the Nikola Two and the Nikola Tre (for European markets), as well as a versatile utility vehicle (UTV) for off-road vehicles, a military grade UTV and an ever-announced jet ski before.

The trucks

The most important of these beginnings are the trucks: Martin admitted later in a private discussion with the press that truck sales would represent the bulk of Nikola's business and revenues. In 2016, Nikola announced its Nikola One truck, promising by 2020 a truck for sale with a range of 1,200 km from a combined battery charged by a hydrogen fuel cell.

Now, the Nikola One has been ruled out of the Nikola Two, which seems better suited for marketing: its powertrain can be manufactured with a battery pack for fully electric operation, or with a fuel running on hydrogen. cell that constantly regenerates a smaller battery.

Although the new marketing date is set at 2022, Martin said last night that Nikola was on track to meet this deadline.

Nikola says the fuel cell version of this truck will have a range of 500 to 750 miles, which is anyway the upper limit of what a person can drive in a stretch. The refueling of the hydrogen truck will only take 15 minutes in one of the 700 hydrogen refueling stations that Nikola has promised to build. (We badume that the company will have more to say about hydrogen fuel today, while it is planned to hold a second lecture given by its vice president of technology. Hydrogen, Jesse Schneider, and Nel Hydrogen, a European supplier of renewable hydrogen manufacturing equipment.)

The 100% battery powertrain does not yet have a specific battery life, but the trucks will likely be sold to transportation companies that want zero carbon options for their activities over shorter distances.

Martin said Nikola had decided to offer a 100% battery option for its trucks so that the company could adapt to all routes. "Weight is so important in the trucking world, every pound is worth 50 cents," Martin said. But, he added, as batteries become more efficient over the next few years, the balance between the weight of the battery and that of the fuel cell could be balanced over time. .

Martin said twice last night that he was expecting hydrogen fuel cell trucks to account for 80 percent of the company's truck orders and battery-only trucks, the remaining 20 percent. .

"The truck's powertrain, whether it's hydrogen or electricity, is the same," said Martin, adding that customers could order trucks that run on hydrogen, 500, 750 or 1,000 kilowatt hours (kWh). ) drums. The efficiency figure of these batteries was not revealed and the company did not specify who would supply the batteries.

As it is common nowadays, Nikola indicates that all its trucks will be equipped with the necessary equipment for a total autonomy of level 4 or 5.

Nevertheless, the most important thing to remember last night was the presence of real demonstration trucks, which will circulate around the site of the congress center for spectators. The company had to face criticism for speaking great without the proof that it could actually make a truck, thus offering concrete evidence of Nikola's seriousness is important.

Although these trucks have been in development for three years, Martin has put forward a "revolutionary" speech, stating on the stage last night that "one of my requirements was that none of my engineers come from from an existing trucking company "because established trucking engineers are" in an environment where they are taught to do certain things in a certain way, to gradually improve them. "

"But I did not want to improve it gradually," said the CEO.

Motorized sports

Nikola gives rides in his UTV demonstration, called Nikola NZT, for at least a year and, at first glance, it seems that little has changed. The vehicle has a battery that gives it 150 miles of autonomy. It has four engines with the eAxle command provided by Bosch, which Ars spoke in 2017.

Nikola gave Ars a ride in his NZT last year in Michigan, a promising production would start this year. At present, marketing has been postponed until 2021, one year before the launch of Nikola Two. Nikola has already made reservations for his NZT.

Last night, Nikola also showed the Reckless, a military-grade UTV, which seems to be a heavier extension of the NZT. Company representatives noted that the benefits of recklessness are mostly stealthy. The UTV makes less noise compared to a diesel-powered UTV, it has almost no heat signature (especially if it works in remote-controlled or autonomous mode, with no one in the seat of the pbadenger), and it can be completely submerged. water. It is not clear if the company has a contract to sell them to the military.

Finally, Martin announced the launch of the Water Adventure Vehicle (WAV), a non-emitting and non-polluting jet ski. "Just as we disrupt our movements on land, we are also disrupting our waterways," said Jordan Darlin, Nikola's vice president of motorsports to the public last night. "You can now explore the most perfect waterways without harming the environment," added Darlin.

Like the NZT, the WAV is expected to be commercialized in 2021. Few specifications have been given for the new jet ski, apart from the fact that Martin has a 12 "4K screen that is apparently fully submersible. last night.

It takes a village

Automotive engineering and electronics company Bosch worked closely with Nikola in the development of the company's trucks and off-road vehicles. According to Bosch's press release, the truck is equipped with a vehicle control unit operating under a "secure operating system that provides real-time and live updates and monitoring," the statement said.

During a conversation with Bosch before the launch last night, Vice President of Commercial Vehicles, Jason Roycht, said the relationship between Bosch and Nikola was special and that the company had a team engineers in Phoenix to help Nikola build the "not so interesting", but necessary elements of the truck. These include optimizing the fuel consumption of Nikola trucks (unsurprisingly, Nikola's first trucks will be sold with fuel contracts, so that the company will essentially badume the burden of paying for fuel), as well as Modeling truck designs to handle braking and other thermal issues related driving a very heavy vehicle.

The company has also supplied Nikola with its Servotwin electrohydraulic steering system, which is relatively new to the trucking industry and will facilitate automated driving in the future.

Despite the skepticism surrounding hydrogen as a fuel in general, Roycht said that Bosch believed that fuel cells have potential in the transportation of goods, where routes are more or less planned and it will be easy to put in place corresponding refueling centers.

Nikola is also badociated with Ryder to provide leasing and service services to its clients. "With billions of miles under their belt, they are already repairing trucks," said Martin last night. "We do not want to maintain our own trucks, it's too expensive, too difficult."

Finance and Legal

The announcement of last night has been a recurring theme: regulation is a burden unsuited to innovation. Martin invited Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (R) to praise the new state of origin of Nikola, Arizona, considered a poorly regulated environment.

Nikola recently purchased large tracts of land in Arizona to build its recently announced manufacturing center and hydrogen lab. The company has promised to employ thousands of people in exchange for local tax breaks.

In response to a question about what the government could or should do to promote zero emission innovation, Mr. Martin said he hoped the regulators would "stand aside," saying that It would take three or four years to authorize a hydrogen refueling station. must take much less time.

But Nikola is not totally opposed to the long branch of government. In May of last year, Nikola sued Tesla for $ 2 billion, claiming that his Nikola One truck cab, which debuted prior to the Tesla Semi, was "substantially similar" to the fully equipped electric cab of Tesla batteries. In December, the case was transferred from the Arizona District Court to the Northern California District Court (PDF), where a judge authorizes a discovery phase of one year.

At the moment, however, Nikola seems well situated, especially from the point of view of financing the company. Martin said last night that his company was about to open a financing round of $ 1.5 billion, with no debt. Answering a question about his intention to make the company public, Martin said no and pointed to Tesla. "I feel really bad about what Tesla is going through," said Martin, explaining that he thought the company was unfairly penalized for missing targets.

Nikola Motor Company registration image