Nikola company profile, history and EVs

Inspired by the name of the famous inventor and electrical engineer “Nikola Tesla” a new American company named Nikola stepped into the electric vehicle market. Founded by Trevor Milton in 2014 and Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, it has been currently presenting the concepts of Electric Trucks since 2016.

Nikola Electric Vehicles

Nikola is focused on building the only Zero-Emission Nikola Electric Vehicles to regulate environmental pollution. In 2016, Nikola announced their first Electric Vehicle which was a semi Electric Class 8 Truck named Nikola One which runs on Hydrogen as a fuel. Nikola One being the first commercial vehicle by Nikola is capable of carrying a total gross weight of 80,000 pounds. Packed with a 250 kWh battery, it covers up to 500-750 miles on a single charge. Being an Electric Truck, it can reach up to a speed of 60 mph in 30 seconds.

Apart from this, the company offers a smart computer, a 21-inch monitor, wifi-4G connectivity within every truck to give the driver full real-time data while driving. The company has planned to offer vehicles with Hydrogen fuel cells as the fuel source, but after 2016, the company has also shifted towards using Hydrogen as fuel because it does not emit any dangerous by-products.

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The company also claimed that in some markets around the globe, they will be using Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) to drive the generator because CNG is also a harmless fuel. Apart from these, the company was planning on more electric trucks such as Nikola Two (Semi-Tractor Truck), Nikola Tre (an Electric Truck), Nikola NZT (a Utility Task Vehicle), Nikola Reckless (Military Grade Off-Highway Vehicle), Nikola WAV, Nikola Badger(Electric Pickup Truck). The majority of the vehicles are in the concept phase and are expected to set on production soon.

Truck factory in Coolidge, Arizona

Nikola claimed that they are building a Truck factory in Coolidge, Arizona that will be able to produce trucks by 2021. According to the company, the manufacturing plant will be able to deliver 35–50,000 trucks in a year. A lot of big market companies have placed their truck orders(10,000+) with Nikola worth 10 Billion US dollars, but the company claimed that it will be able to deliver vehicles after the completion of its manufacturing facility.

Nikola has not yet started to deliver Nikola Electric Vehicles to its customers, but the market capitalization of the vehicle is about 34 Billion dollars. With a Market value of more than 30 Billion, the company has surpassed the oldest and biggest player named “Ford” in the market.

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The company is expecting zero revenue for 2021 and its first $1 billion revenue in the year 2023 from the rollout of its Tre Class 8 BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle), followed by the Nikola Two Class 8 FCEV (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle) starting in 2023. The company doesn’t expect to be fully working till their Manufacturing plant is fully set up. Since the company also focuses on building electric vehicles operating on Hydrogen-Fuel cell, so like Tesla’s Supercharger Network, the company is expected to set up a network of Hydrogen Fuel stations in the future for recharging purposes.

The company merged with VectoIQ Acquisition Corporation

The production of Nikola Electric Vehicles operating on the Hydrogen Fue Cell will start after the completion of the World’s largest network of hydrogen refueling stations and till then the company will only deliver Battery operated Electric Vehicles. In 2020, the company merged with VectoIQ Acquisition Corporation which is a publicly-traded company run by a former General Motors Co- executive named Steve Girsky.

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While The merger of VectolQ made Nikola Motor Company raise 700 million US dollars in cash. The biggest Entrepreneurs of the EV market claim that the concept of Fuel Cell operated Electric Vehicles is absurd, but since Nikola is promising surprising performance figures so it is expected that in the future, Fuel cell vehicles will also have a major share in the Electric vehicles Market.