Nikola delivered its first electric truck, the Nikola Tre, over the weekend that marks the initiation of the first batch of 100 units. The company will continue to deliver in 2022 and generate the first inflow of revenue.
Founded in 2014 and listed in 2020, EV startup Nikola finally managed to produce and deliver its first vehicle before the end of 2021. The lucky recipient of this first vehicle is California’s Total Transportation Services (TTSI).
The TTSI signed a letter of intent with Nikola on 10 units of trucks during May this year that included 30 lithium battery trucks and 70 hydrogen trucks, which is quite courageous since Nikola has been constantly delaying the production schedule for its core product that is the hydrogen truck, and it had even turned to a release of the lithium battery truck, Tre, that was thought to be relatively outdated.
Nikola, after 7 years, still hasn’t produced its hydrogen car, and has instead replaced it with the lithium battery truck Tre as its first delivered product.
Nikola will complete TTSI’s order in 2022 by delivering 30 units of its lithium battery truck Nikola Tre, before delivering the remaining 70 units of its hydrogen trucks in 2023.
What is surprising is that the Arizona factory of Nikola is still under construction, so the order from TTSI is actually manufactured at the Iveco factory in Ulm. Succeeding trucks, including the lithium battery and hydrogen variations, will be manufactured in Germany and shipped to the US afterwards.
The first phase construction for Nikola’s in-house factory is expected to be complete in 2022. It will be manufacturing approximately 2,400 trucks per year. The second phase is scheduled to conclude in 2023, and will elevate the capacity to 20K units then.
Nikola has finally delivered its first vehicle after going through scam suspicions and the departure of its founder. The financial report will surpass US$0 in revenue for the first time next quarter, which will restore confidence in the company. The surge of 7% in stock prices today has pushed the share price of the company one step closer to the US$10 threshold that was also the listed price back then.
(Cover photo source: Nikola Motor)