As Nikola resets, Hyundai fuel cell trucks arriving in 2021

Battery-powered trucks with no tailpipe emissions have the inside track on middle- and final-mile delivery trucks. Long-haul trucks require more cargo-limiting batteries, making them better suited for fuel cells.

Hyundai will focus on fleets of 3,000 to 5,000 trucks that can create their own refueling stations, avoiding the building a hydrogen fueling infrastructure.

Nikola’s contrasting approach

By contrast, Nikola plans to create a network of electricity-intensive fueling stations beginning with station pairs along fuel cell truck customers’ dedicated routes. 

Global collaborations around hydrogen fuel cells will make driving diesel more expensive than hydrogen at some point in the future, Nikola Chief Financial Officer Kim Brady said during an Evercore ISI virtual forum Tuesday.

The drawback of making hydrogen at fuel stations, Brady said, is electricity expense, which can be 85% of the total cost. In locations like rural Arizona west of Phoenix, the juice can cost pennies per kilowatt hour because of ample solar energy. By contrast, the cost of electricity from the grid in parts of California is much higher.

Nikola has not yet announced its partner or partners for hydrogen station development. But CEO Mark Russell told a virtual Morgan Stanley conference on Sept. 14 that any partner will need to have access to electric infrastructure.

Separately, Daimler Trucks on Sept. 16 showed a heavy-duty fuel cell truck called GenH2 capable of a 360-mile range that it will produce in the second half of the decade. Versions are planned for the U.S. and Japan.

Related articles:

Fuel cell trucks enroute from Korea to Switzerland

Nikola will truck hydrogen to stations where electricity costs too much

Hyundai boldly leaps into fuel cell truck race

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