Arizona-based Nikola Corporation has just unveiled the latest electric pickup truck on the market to rival Tesla, Ford, and Rivian, announcing the Nikola Badger electric pickup truck with an estimated range of 600 miles.
The pickup truck will be available in hydrogen fuel-cell electric (FCEV) or battery electric (BEV) version, and will make its first appearance at Nikola World 2020 in Phoenix expected in September 2020, the company said in a statement.
The Badger will have an estimated range of 600 miles, which is 100 miles more than the estimated maximum range of Tesla's Cybertruck.
Tesla revealed the Cybertruck in November 2019 to mixed reactions not just because of the "planar", as Musk called it, appearance of the truck but also because the presentation did not go completely as planned when the supposedly armored glass of the vehicle broke.
"Trucks have been the same for a very long time," Musk said at the launch. "Like a hundred years, trucks have been basically the same. We want to try something different."
The Nikola Badger, announced this week, will be able to operate on FCEV / battery-blend or BEV mode at any given time, while it can drive 300 miles in BEV mode for those that do not have access to hydrogen, the company says.
Nikola Corporation currently plans 700 hydrogen stations to give North America hydrogen coverage. The company will announce initial locations for hydrogen stations in the U.S. this quarter.
Nikola has already created hydrogen fuel cell electric or fully electric semi-trucks.
"Nikola has billions worth of technology in our semi-truck program, so why not build it into a pickup truck?" Trevor Milton, Nikola Corporation's CEO, said in a statement.
"I have been working on this pickup program for years and believe the market is now ready for something that can handle a full day's worth of work without running out of energy," Milton says.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews. More