Hydrogen Fuel-cell Trucks with 1,000hp into Production - Nikola One announced that it's finally happened.  

There's been a lot of talk about "zero-emission" hydrogen fuel cells over the years, but no manufacturer had actually managed to pull it off.

Amongst many other problems, the biggest was production costs and scale - ie, too little demand for an expensive technology means it won't be cheap enough to ever be popular.

However, The Salt Lake City, USA, based company, Nikola One, has managed to carve out a niche in providing heavy hauler semi-truck's that utilizes the technology.

The result is a truck that is powered by a fully electric drivetrain pumping out 1,000hp (746 kW) and more than 2,700Nm of torque, fueled by an electric storage system of lithium-ion batteries and a hydrogen fuel-cell to deliver a range of 800-1200 miles (1200-2000 km's).

Before you say "oh man, it's some sort of electric, what truck driver wants to stop driving for 12 hours to recharge?".

What I say to you is... "this is a hydrogen fuel based system that can be fully recharged within 15 minutes. That's a sensible stop period for a truck driver after 1,000miles of driving towing up to 35tonnes of cargo".

Modern technology that's also sensible and practical.

Nikola One will be offering these heavy haulers under a leasing progran that providers unlimited hydrogen fuel, warranty and scheduled maintenance over a three year term and has already reportedly accepted US$3billion in orders.

Speaking at the reveal, company boss, Trevor Milton, said: “We are extremely excited to finally show off the Nikola One to the public for the first time”.

“Nikola will build a world-class advanced manufacturing facility which will create thousands of new jobs”.

“There are many out there that wondered if we would deliver, but today we proudly show off the most advanced semi-truck ever built. We couldn’t be more thrilled to have one of the best brands in America, Ryder, as our trusted partner providing nationwide sales, service and warranty for Nikola Motor Company,” he added.

Interestingly, the company says that their lithium-ion hydrogen fuel cell battery unit has the potential to fit within the same space of an BMW i3 or Tesla Model S and provide superioer range on a single charge.




--------------------