Salt Lake City-based Nikola Motor Company is to partner with German auto components supplier Bosch to bring two hydrogen (H2)-electric, long-haul, heavy-duty trucks to the market by 2021.
The company revealed the class eight semi trucks – Nikola One and Two – will deliver more than 1,000 horsepower and 2,000 ft lbs of torque – nearly double the horsepower of any semi-truck on the road – all with “zero local emissions”.
Nikola and Bosch will develop a powertrain together using Bosch’s eAxle technology. The eAxle is a scalable, modular platform with the motor, power electronics and transmission in one compact unit. This makes it suitable for vehicles of all kinds from small passenger cars, to light trucks.
The eAxles will be paired with a custom-designed fuel cell system – also being jointly developed between Nikola and Bosch.
Trevor Milton, Nikola Founder and CEO, explained, “We have been aggressively pursuing our goal of bringing the most advanced semi-truck ever built to market. The powertrain requires an innovative and flexible partner able to adapt quickly to the speed of our team. Bosch has empowered us to come to market quickly with automotive-grade hardware and software so our vision can become a reality.”
