Hydro-powered truck could provide cost-cutting and sustainability opportunities

Recently U.S. electric truck maker Nikola Motor presented the third version of its hydrogen-powered electric semitrailer truck.

The Nikola Tre — tre meaning “three” in Norwegian — will be the “first European zero-emission commercial truck,” according to Trevor Milton, the firm’s founder and chief executive. Milton: “The truck will come with “redundant braking, redundant steering, redundant 800Vdc batteries and a redundant 120 Kw hydrogen fuel cell, all necessary for true level 5 autonomy”.

Redundancy in engineering means the duplication of vital components of a system in order to increase its reliability and performance. “Level 5 autonomy” refers to a level of autonomy in self-driving vehicles that means they can be operated without a human driver under any environmental conditions. The company did not reveal a price for the new truck of which a prototype will be displayed in April 2019. Nikola – founded in 2014 – also said it would be targeting other international markets including Asia and Australia with this new truck. European testing of the truck is slated to begin in Norway by around 2020, Nikola said, and the firm is in “preliminary planning stages” to decide a location for its European manufacturing plant.

As for Industrial Textile Services companies this new truck may present a cost-cutting opportunity in the future, since their transportation costs play a considerable role in overall business expenditure. It could also may well influence their sustainability efforts which are an emerging theme of interest throughout overall modern business.