Nikola Motor Company is to partner with CNH Industrial to speed up the arrival of its hydrogen fuel cell-powered trucks on the North American and European markets.
CNH Industrial, which owns IVECO and engine maker FPT Industrial, will be investing $250m (£203m) in Nikola Motor Company under the agreement.
Nikola Motor Company CEO Trevor Milton stated back in April at the global launch of the model line-up that he was looking for a partnership with an established heavy truck manufacturer to benefit from a ready-made manufacturing and engineering base with an existing support network.
The immediate priorities for Nikola Motor Company will be the industrialisation of the Nikola TWO, the day-cabbed North American model, and the incorporation of technology from the newly launched IVECO S-WAY (pictured, left) into the European-style TRE (right).
Interestingly, the announcement only refers to the TRE as a battery-electric vehicle, while the TWO will be fuel cell-powered.
“The time has come to finally provide a zero-emission solution to the heavyduty truck market,” commented Milton. “While other OEMs believe zero-emission solutions cannot happen in the timeframe regulators have mandated, Nikola, FPT Industrial and IVECO are proving that these timelines are not unreasonable.
“Nikola has the technology but needs a partner with a European network to achieve it in a timely manner. With CNH Industrial’s investment and partnership, we can now bring zero-emission trucks to Europe.
“It is exciting to see IVECO taking the lead in zero-emission solutions in Europe through its partnership with Nikola,” he went on. “By bringing CNH Industrial on board, we now have access to manufacturing know-how, purchasing power, validated truck parts, plant engineering and much more. Few will doubt our ability to commercialise a truck now.”
Nikola has also revealed two more suppliers joining the same round of investments. Vehicle component and system manufacturer Bosch, and Hanwha, which makes the solar panels that Nikola uses to generate the clean electricity needed to produce hydrogen for its supply infrastructure, have between them invested another $230m (£186m).
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