MAYBE NIO/\ Tesla’s Largest Competitor Is Hidden In Plain Sight
Oilprice.com
Jon LeSage
,Oilprice.com•December 2, 2019
The Tesla Cybertruck is getting the enthusiasm CEO Elon Musk had
hoped for, bragging that 200,000 pre-orders have already been placed
for the futuristic electric pickup launched Thursday night.
But he's yet to respond to Nikola Motors CEO Trevor Milton's offer
to share his company's even cooler fuel cell pickup design to reach
a "broader market."
Nikola Motors is at the center of a surge in support for hydrogen
and fuel cell vehicles that had been missing. Musk for years has dismissed and ridiculed hydrogen fuel cell vehicles,
but the truck segment is grabbing hold of it — along with cleantech
and green power advocates
— who had previously always chosen electric vehicles over fuel cell.
Consulting firm Cleantech Group calls it a new path to “decarbonize transportation."
Nikola, Toyota, and Hyundai are being given credit for opening up
the
"hydrogen highway"
through what they're bringing out in hydrogen-powered commercial trucks.
Daimler Trucks,
Kenworth, and
truck engine maker Cummins are also entering the race.
Fuel cell buses are another segment gaining support.
Hydrogen vehicles offer the performance and instant torque of
battery electric vehicles, while providing greater range than any
pure EV on the market today
— which is a big deal for a trucking fleet looking to switch over
from diesel. Another advantage is that refueling times are comparable
to gasoline cars,
another way its beating EVs — even those being juiced up through the fastest chargers.
Electric pickups like Rivian’s R1T
(which received a 100,000-unit order from Amazon)
and what Ford and GM have in the works, will be competing with Tesla’s Cybertruck.
But for commercial trucks, hydrogen and fuel cells may be the winner; or at least the strongest competitor to diesel, gasoline, and future electric trucks.
Related: Elon Musk Claims 250,000 Orders For Cybertruck
Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch has started testing Nikola
semi-tractor trucks in its fleet.
The beer company said it plans to buy up to 800 of the hydrogen fuel cell models for its fleet of long-haul delivery vehicles.
Anheuser-Busch just took the first of these tests by delivering beer from the local Anheuser-Busch brewery to the St. Louis-based Enterprise Center using only zero-emission trucks.
Nikola and electric vehicle maker BYD supplied the test vehicles.
Nikola Motors is also getting support for its innovation,
though the company’s claims are yet to be proven.
These include a landmark breakthrough in battery technology that
could double the range of electric vehicles without adding any weight
(offering EV competition to Tesla's upcoming Semi electric heavy-duty trucks);
and a monthly lease payment that would require customers to agree to
a million-mile lease at the cost of 95 cents mile, or $950,000 over a typical seven-year lease to remove some of the risk of buying a fuel
cell truck. Nikola also has plans in the works for setting up about
700 hydrogen fueling stations
— another investment plan similar to Tesla taking on its Supercharger network.
Toyota Motor Corp. has the top-selling hydrogen powered car in the world, the Mirai, but it’s also committed to fuel cell trucks.
The company has been testing a hydrogen fuel cell yard truck that moving shipping containers within the Port of Los Angeles.
The company also entered a project with truck maker Kenworth to build
10 zero-emission Class 8 trucks.
They’ll be supported by the California Air Resources Board’s Zero
and Near-Zero Emissions Freight Facilities grant, and these trucks
will be used at the harbor complex for the Ports of Los Angeles and
Long Beach.
Hyundai Motor Co. plans to build a production capacity of 500,000
fuel cell systems for passenger and commercial vehicles by 2030 at
a cost of about $6.4 billion. The Korean-maker recently unveiled
the concept of its planned HDC-6 Neptune hydrogen fuel cell truck in Atlanta.
Hyundai sees opportunities in the US, but the Asian market would
also be hot
— with serious commitments given to fuel cell vehicles and
hydrogen stations by the governments of
South Korea,
Japan, and
China.
Hydrogen fuel cell buses are seeing more demand.
Both Toyota and Hyundai have offerings and have begun selling fuel
cell components to bus makers, particularly in China.
A number of Chinese vehicle makers have developed their own buses,
including state-owned SAIC Motor,
the nation’s biggest automaker, and Geely Auto Group,
which also owns the Volvo Cars and Lotus brands.
