The struggling electric truckmaker sells the first commercial hydrogen fuel cell truck in the U.S., with double the range of battery models — and so far, drivers love them.
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Here's your Forbes daily briefing for Wednesday, August 14th. Today on Forbes, electric trucks nearly killed Nikola, now hydrogen ones are saving it. Nikola, the electric truck maker, has had a rocky few years. Its work to survive the reputational harm and share price crash that resulted from the lies of its founder that earned him a four-year prison sentence. He was forced to recall hundreds of its first electric semis to fix batteries at risk of catching fire. But since it began shipping hydrogen-powered big rigs late last year, things are turning around. Jim Gillis is the president of the Pacific region for trucking company IMC, which has hundreds of semis hauling thousands of loads in and out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach daily. He said, quote, "It's a good truck, feedback from the drivers, the fit and finish, it's just superlative. It's referred to in our fleet as the Bentley of Trucks." Collierville, Tennessee-based IMC, which specializes in hauling loads between ports and warehouses, is among Nikola's earliest and best customers, operating 50 of its hydrogen-tray FCEV trucks right now with another 50 on order. And drivers, even those wary of the truck's old-school, so-called "cab-over chassis," are getting on board quickly, Gillis told Forbes. He said, quote, "When you first put a driver in front of it, that whole cab-over design, kind of like a late '70s/early '80s model-looking truck, they're very apprehensive, but once they climb into it and go on one trip, they don't want to go back. The user experience is just great." Drivers love it because the Nikola model is vastly quieter than the roar of a diesel big rig and lacks its telltale vibration, and the dirty exhaust. The hydrogen truck also uses regenerative brakes that capture friction from stopping and deceleration, so even the loud airbrake noise of conventional trucks is gone. It's got nearly double the usable hauling range of a battery-powered semi, and, critically, refueling takes about 20 minutes or so versus hours of plug-in time. But there's a downside. Because this powertrain technology is so new, there's virtually no existing fueling infrastructure yet and the cost of hydrogen fuel is at least doubled out of diesel. To keep IMC's trucks running, Nikola operates temporary stations, essentially tankers set up in parking lots, near the sprawling ports in Long Beach and close to networks of warehouses in Ontario, California. A third mobile station opened in Santa Fe Springs, midway between the first two, on Monday. Nikola's customers in the San Francisco Bay Area can fuel at a fixed true zero station operated by First Element, a private company that runs about 50 hydrogen stations across California, serving drivers of fuel cell cars, including Toyota's Mariah Sedan and Hyundai's Nexo SUV. As truck volume grows, Nikola plans to build permanent stations in the next year or two, where demand is highest, using grant funds from California. It's also finding interest in Canada, where Walmart just started using a tray FCEV near Toronto. Last month, Nikola opened its first mobile Canadian fuel station in Etobicoke, Ontario. Hydrogen prices are high for now, but Nikola's CEO Steve Gursky told Forbes that the availability of fuel, historically a challenge for California's fuel cell car market, isn't a problem. He said, "We're not worried in the next six months about hydrogen supply. Frankly, we think there's an abundance of supply out there right now. It's not at a cost we want, but it's part of building a coalition of partners." That coalition will likely include vehicle manufacturers and energy companies. Gursky declined to identify if those include Toyota, Hyundai, and Daimler, which are preparing to sell their own hydrogen-fueled semis. Nikola got some much-needed good news on August 9th, as the Phoenix-based company posted its best quarterly revenue to date, thanks to better-than-expected growth in hydrogen truck sales, $31.3 million, more than double last year. Still, it's far from profitable, losing $133.6 million in the second quarter. The quarterly results sent Nikola's share soaring on Friday before finishing the day up 8.2%. For full coverage, check out Alan Owensman's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in. [BLANK_AUDIO]
