Nikola Corp NKLA on Thursday celebrated the commercial launch of its hydrogen fuel cell EV (FCEV)— a class-8 truck— at its facility in Coolidge, Arizona.
What Happened: “As we head into the fourth quarter, we are focused on delivering our trucks at scale and securing our position as pioneers in the hydrogen refueling ecosystem to support our customers,” company CEO Steve Girsky said.
The new truck has a range of up to 500 miles and an estimated fueling time of 20 minutes. Nikola and its dealers have thus far received 223 non-binding orders for these trucks from 23 customers including J.B. Hunt, AJR Trucking, Biagi Bros. and TTSI, it said in a statement.
Why It Matters: Nikola has presently halted deliveries of its battery electric vehicles due to a recall that followed several reports of fire since June. However, the BEV recall will not affect the production or deliveries of the FCEVs as they employ different battery packs from a different supplier, the company had previously clarified.
Nikola trucks are eligible for several state and federal incentives including a $40,000 clean commercial vehicle tax credit per vehicle under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk has in the past criticized government backing of Hydrogen as ‘makes no sense’ and even ‘idiotic.’
Musk has long expressed skepticism over hydrogen as an efficient fuel source. In May 2022, Musk said the world would overwhelmingly choose batteries over hydrogen for storing energy and termed the latter “the most dumb thing I could possibly imagine for energy storage.”
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