Tipping Point – The 1000km Electric Truck

One of my big predictions, and tipping points for moving away from combustion engines, is for personal electric vehicles to hit the 1000+kms on one charge. This is what I think will be the game changer in and will mark the end of active selling of combustion engine vehicles.
Last weekend a group of 4 friends decided to drive to a wedding in Scotland in a Tesla. It was 442 miles (or 712 kms) along mostly A-roads and motorways.

They stopped twice to charge for 50 minutes each time. Not ideal but they had almost no complaints.
Now we have a company in the United States called ‘Nikola’ (oh, the competition) that hired Steve Jennes, the former Chief Designer of Isuzu’s commercial truck division, that has created the ‘Nikola One’. And, it has received over two billion dollars in early pre-orders and is one of the most advanced electric trucks on the market.


It’s a mix of technologies with a 320 kw battery pack augmented by a long-range vehicle with a methane range extender. That means it gets up to 1,200 miles – a whopping 1932kms – on a full charge (with the range extender).

Our technology is 10-15 years ahead of any other OEM in fuel efficiencies, MPG and emissions. We are the only OEM to have a near zero emission truck and still outperform diesel trucks running at 80,000 pounds. To have over 7,000 reservations totaling more than 2.3 billion dollars, with five months remaining until our unveiling ceremony, is unprecedented.
Nikola Motors CEO Trevor Milton.

The truck has the following stats:

• 6X6 100% Electric drive
• Zero idle
• Many times cleaner than diesel engines
• 1/2 the fuel cost per mile compared to diesel
• 3,700 FT. LBS Torque
• 2,000 Horsepower
• 1,200 Miles range
• 320 kWh Battery
• 1 million miles fuel free
• Regenerative braking
• Never plug-in – Turbine charges batteries automatically while driving

Currently, only renderings and vehicle statistics are available with a December, 2016 date set for the unveiling of a prototype.

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Nikolas Badminton is a world-respected futurist speaker that researches, speaks, and writes about the future of work, how technology is affecting the workplace, how workers are adapting, the sharing economy, and how the world is evolving. He appears at conferences in Canada, USA, UK, and Europe. Email him to book him for your radio, TV show, or conference.