By 2026, the manufacturer of electric trucks announced plans for 60 hydrogen stations, made possible by numerous federal and state subsidies.
The price Nikola will pay per kilogram of produce is unknown. However, it is likely to cost much more than Milton’s figure of less than $4 per kilogram. Government financing will reduce the cost per kilogram by a number of dollars.
Phoenix-based Nikola just acquired 900 acres of property in Buckeye, Arizona, where it plans to set up its first hub for producing hydrogen. Nikola will purchase electricity from Arizona Public Service for about 2 cents per kilowatt hour. In 2020, the company bought electrolyzers from Nel ASA in Norway. Hydrogen and oxygen are broken apart in electrolyzers using a lot of electricity.
At its facilities in Coolidge, Arizona, Nikola hopes to start serial manufacturing of Class 8 fuel cell daycab versions fueled by hydrogen. 90 miles east of Buckeye is where that is. In its initial phase, the Buckeye hydrogen hub will create 30 metric tons of hydrogen daily. At completion, it will scale to 50 metric tons per day.
Daily, 300 metric tons
Nikola wants to create access to a daily low-carbon hydrogen source of up to 300 metric tons. To compete on price with diesel trucks, it is relying on the IRA as well as other federal, state, and local incentives.
The IRA will lower the overall cost of hydrogen production and distribution when combined with state-based incentives like the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). Heavy-duty truck hydrogen supply and dispensing are not currently available. At least three hydrogen filling stations are planned by Nikola for California, two of which will be built in collaboration with the owner of truck stops, TravelCenters of America.
Additionally, Nikola made a financial investment in Indiana’s Wabash Valley Resources (WVR), which aims to create more than 250 metric tons of low-carbon hydrogen daily. Once completed, the WVR facility is anticipated to deliver about 50 metric tons of hydrogen daily to the Midwest region. Of WVR, Nikola owns 20%.
The IRA provides the following:
- Credit for alternative fuel car refueling properties aids Nikola’s aims to construct up to 60 dispensing stations by 2026
- When used with California’s LCFS, the price per kilogram of hydrogen administered ranges from $1 to $2.
- Offsets of up to 30% from the advanced energy project credit for Nikola’s Coolidge manufacturing factory expansion in Arizona.
- Production credit of $10 per kilowatt hour from advanced manufacturing for creating battery modules internally.
- A Nikola Tre battery-electric or fuel cell truck may be less expensive to purchase initially thanks to a $40,000 commercial clean vehicle credit.
