The first building is almost ready.
About nine months have passed since the official groundbreaking of the Nikola construction site in Coolidge, Arizona on July 23, 2020 and here is how the site looks like now.
Drone video from Bear’s Workshop reveals a near-complete first building, which probably within a month or so will get the walls. There is also a smaller structure on the side and a bunch of inner roads.
The video describes the facility as “Nikola Semi Pilot Factory” and that’s probably correct as it seems too small to be considered a real factory.
The company for sure have a plan of gradual expansion to produce battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
The first model that will be produced to be the battery-electric Nikola Tre (currently prototypes are produced at IVECO’s plant in Ulm, Germany), followed by Nikola Tre FCEV hydrogen fuel cell truck, expected in mid-2023 and bigger Nikola Two FCEV (in the second half of 2024).
The trial production of Nikola Tre BEVs in Europe is scheduled to begin in June 2021.
Hopefully soon we will learn more about the Nikola Tre as its market launch, at least in Europe, will probably happen later this year. On the hydrogen fuel cell truck front – we are sceptical about the outcome, especially if battery electric versions will take off.
Tesla Semi is promised to enter production this year. Daimler and Volvo are also pretty advanced on their semi trucks and those are just a few out of many other manufacturers.
Nikola Tre specs (from April 2021):
- up to 300 miles (483 km) of range in an undisclosed test cycle
- modular battery system up to 750 kWh
- system output of 645 hp (about 480 kW)
- DC fast charging au up to 350 kW
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