Nikola One: Disruptive Technology?

17 Jan by Vitaliy Dadalyan

Nikola One: Disruptive Technology?

<img width="150" src="http://www.automotive-fleet.com/fc_images/articles/m-nikola-1.jpg" border="0" alt="

The Nikola One sleeper-cab prototype unveiled in early December in Salt Lake City looks like no other. It’s lettered for U.S. Xpress, whose Chairman and CEO Max Fuller believes Nikola One will be “a game changer.” 

Photo: Tom Berg

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The Nikola One sleeper-cab prototype unveiled in early December in Salt Lake City looks like no other. It’s lettered for U.S. Xpress, whose Chairman and CEO Max Fuller believes Nikola One will be “a game changer.” 

Photo: Tom Berg

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Trevor Milton has an ambitious plan to change North America’s trucks from diesel power to electric propulsion with hydrogen fuel cells and high-density lithium-ion batteries. If he’s successful, the H2-LI electric powertrain will be a “game changer” and “disruptive technology,” as two trucking executives called it. If not, this project will be another failure involving the hydrogen fuel that’s supposed to revolutionize the automotive world.

Milton, the CEO of Nikola Motor Co., unveiled his Nikola One over-the-road tractor in early December at the firm’s Salt Lake City base. Milton told an audience of several hundred, and many more tuned into a webcast of the event, that the truck will be in production by 2020, with further development, testing, and certification work taking place between now and then.

For months as Nikola’s well-orchestrated publicity teased the new electric truck, observers wondered whether the truck and the project itself were the real thing. The vehicle on the stage was very real, but it never turned a wheel during the presentation or a three-hour technical briefing the following day.

It remains to be seen whether Nikola One will ever freight, but the presence of industry giants like Ryder System, Meritor, and U.S. Xpress lent credibility to the project. Nikola claims to have deep-pocket investors, plus over $4 billion in order reservations for the truck, which may see it through to production and sales success.

Early in his presentation, Milton paid tribute to diesel-powered trucks that have reliably and efficiently hauled cargo for so many years. But he said that diesel trucks, no matter how efficient, will always produce …Read the rest of this story

Source:: http://www.truckinginfo.com/channel/fuel-smarts/article/story/2017/01/nikola-one-disruptive-technology.aspx