Nikola One: The Electric Semi
If you have been reading this website for more than a few months, you probably know Tesla by now, the Californian EV automaker (if you just joined us, welcome!). The manufacturer gets his name from Nikola Tesla, a genius inventor who lived in the last century. Among many things, he developed the alternative current (AC), which revolutionized electricity as we know it.
It seems like another manufacturer wants to honour the man; to make sure people won’t confuse them with Elon Musk’s business, they chose to use Tesla’s first name.
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The semi you see in the above pictures is the Nikola One, a hybrid vehicle.
Instead of being propelled by a polluting diesel engine, the One packs a 320-kWh battery. To keep said battery charged, the vehicle is also fitted with a compressed natural gas (CNG) turbine. Overall, the One has the equivalent of 2000 horsepower, and probably enough torque to shift the Earth on its axis.
According to the manufacturer, this truck would cost half as much to run as a regular semi.
For now, the One is nothing more than a render; however, Nikola is starting to take orders for it, at a starting price of USD$375,000.
