Can Nikola compete with Tesla? The badger wants to be safe.
Nikola Motors
The Nikola Badger jumped into the world last March with a random timing. Tesla had taken the Internet by storm with his Cyber truck Months earlier and GMC teased his Lobster EV pick up during the Super Bowl a few weeks before Nikola’s announcement.
But the startup that is largely focused on fuel cell technologies, the badger promises is the real deal. So real that it is ready to open truck reservations this month. Nikola’s founder, Trevor Milton, tweeted on Monday that the company plans to open reservation books on June 29. Not only do individuals get their Badger pickups first, they also get Nikola World 2020 tickets ahead of others. The event will introduce the electric vehicle later this year.
We will open reservations for the emission-free truck on June 29th. See the @ nikolamotor Badger personally at # nikolaworld2020 this year. You will see a real truck, not a fake show truck. Expect embossed metal panels, a working interior with air conditioning, four-wheel drive, etc. pic.twitter.com/SkY9zV0bbs
– Trevor Milton (@nikolatrevor), June 8, 2020
It’s not clear how much buyers will have to drop to take their place on one of Nikolas pickups, and we don’t know how much the rig will actually cost. But Milton added in his tweet that the truck we’re going to see this year will be real and fully functional. Not a “fake show truck” that looks like a bump on the cyber truck.
Nikola Motors’ Badger electric truck wants to sink its teeth into Tesla, Rivian
Show all photos
The basic specifications for the Badger include either a purely electric drive train or a combination of an electric drive and a hydrogen fuel cell system. However, the latter should offer a range of 600 miles Hydrogen infrastructure remains a really big problem. Assuming the specs for a production pickup remain the same, Nikola said the truck will absorb 906 horsepower and 980 pound-feet of torque. A 0 to 60 mph sprint should take 2.9 seconds and are said to haul 8,000 pounds.
Does Nikola have a shot? I would say as much as any other automaker willing to push electric pickups on the market. Demand for electric vehicles is still very low worldwide and even lower in the United States. Emission-free pickups may be what the world needs, but we won’t know until models like the Badger become reality.
Look at that:
Check out the electric trucks that want to steal the show …
5:47