Nikola reveals 2023 saw a successful launch of its hydrogen trucks in US and Canada
January 5, 2024The company produced and wholesaled a combined 77 trucks last year.
Via its energy brand, HYLA, Nikola announced that it produced 42 of its Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks and wholesaled 35 of these hydrogen trucks for its US and Canadian customers in 2023.
A Class 8 H2 truck with one of the longest ranges.
Nikola’s hydrogen trucks boast a range of up to 500 miles and feature versatile applications. Among these include drayage and intermodal to metro-regional truckload and less-than-truckload to certain specialized hauling use cases. As for the time it takes to refuel these FCEVs, it’s as little as 20 minutes.
According to Nikola, it believes its fuel cell truck has one of the longest ranges of all zero-tailpipe emission Class 8 trucks that are commercially available at present.
“What an effort by our dedicated and passionate team, to create — and deliver — what we believe is the only U.S. designed and assembled Class 8 hydrogen fuel cell electric truck on the road today,” said Steve Girsky, Nikola’s CEO.
“Our pioneering spirit is what made it possible to wholesale these 35 trucks to our dealers for customers in the U.S. and Canada.”
Non-wholesaled hydrogen trucks are being used in a field test.
Three of the seven hydrogen trucks that were produced by the company in 2023 but that were not wholesaled, are currently being utilized in an extended field test that Nikola is conducting with a fleet partner. As for the remaining four trucks, two are being used for service training/customer demos and the other two are in continued validation and engineering.
Nikola Trucks at manufacturing facility – Image source: Nikola
“Our goal is to introduce a better, cleaner way to deliver goods to the North American market in a reliable package. Our FCEV customer pilot programs have shown strong results, with truck uptime at 98%**—crucial for efficient fleet usage,” Grisky said.
More trucks to be delivered this year.
Based in Phoenix Arizona, with a manufacturing plant in Coolidge, Nikola’s FCEV began serial production at the end of July 2023 followed by a commercial launch on September 28.
According to the company CEO, Nikola is looking “forward to delivering more trucks in 2024.”
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Trucks are a great use for hydrogen since batteries are way too heavy, slow, expensive, etc. Next after truck perfect the use of hydrogen, it will be airplanes that will need to convert to hydrogen.
Hi Kirk. Agree: hydrogen-fuel cell-electric trucks are the most energy efficient way for heavy transport and they save a huge amount of downtime by being refueled at about the same rate as diesel, compared with hours for recharging, but for hydrogen-fuel cell flight, these aircraft are already flying, albeit in a development phase; see Zero Avia the US-British company: zeroavia.com/
I’m not a technical expert however, I do take an interest in hydrogen engines. That is why I am mentioning JCB of the UK, which do have working diggers using just hydrogen, no ‘batteries’. They have done this by adding a conversion unit to their diesel engines, which they produce. I imagine that by not relying on the electric fuel cells means that it would mean that mining for these other elements is also cleaner.?
How many trucks are operating in China and how successful have they been? Why have we ot heard about Chinese battery trucks?
Nikola is progressing with their impressive class 8 hydrogen fuel cell heavy haulers. To assist HYLA with its hydrogen fuel stations that are planned in the US. Companies like Amazon should consider buying these amazing Nikola trucks and using HYLA to develop on-site mini hydrogen refueling stations at their fulfillment centers across the US. Plug Power can play a major role as well.