Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewing company in North America, announced it has placed an order for 800 heavy duty Class 8 Nikola One electric trucks with Nikola Motors, the Salt Lake City-based startup that is working to bring clean electric trucks to America’s highways.
Those trucks replace the diesel engine found in most tractor trailers with electric motors, batteries, and a hydrogen powered fuel cell that supplements the output of the batteries. Nikola claims a maximum range of 1,200 miles for its trucks. The fuel cell Nikola will use is being supplied by Bosch, one of the largest global suppliers to the automotive market.
The Nikola One truck will weigh about 2000 pounds less than a conventional semi, even with high pressure hydrogen storage tanks inside its frame rail and a 320 kWh battery. Nikola says it will construct 28 hydrogen refueling stations to serve the needs of the Anheuser-Busch fleet.
Those locations will also be available to drivers of fuel cell powered cars. The company says it will construct as many as 700 hydrogen fueling stations over the next few years. Each truck will store up to 3 megawatt-hours of energy and consume more than 70 kilograms of hydrogen each day.
Anheuser-Busch will begin testing the Nikola One tractors later this year and expects to have all 800 trucks in service by the end of 2020.
Anheuser-Busch has also placed an order for 40 Tesla Semis.