Posted on 05/04/2018 2:27:16 PM PDT by BBell
Nikola Motor Company, the startup maker of hydrogen-electric-powered semi-trucks, has received quite an order. On Thursday, Anheuser-Busch announced it plans to purchase up to 800 of the company's semis. The order will effectively replace Anheuser-Busch's entire semi fleet with trucks powered by renewable energy. The purchase will largely be Nikola Two day cabs instead of the Nikola One sleeper cabs.
It's a firm deal, but not a final one. Anheuser-Busch said the order is contingent upon Nikola's construction of hydrogen fueling stations. The company plans to install more than 700 such stations across the U.S. by 2028, many of which will be situated along routes for the Budweiser brewer. The stations will be open to the public and also available to fuel other hydrogen-powered vehicles. On an even greener note, renewable and sustainable energies like wind and solar will power the stations.
Nikola and its semi trucks remain the most credible challenger to Tesla and its Semi model. The beer maker also announced it would purchase 40 Tesla Semis last year. However, Tesla has promised a 500-mile range for its rig; Nikola says its semi will go 500-1,200 miles.
Pre-production Nikola semis will be delivered to Anheuser-Busch by the end of this year and regular production is expected to begin in 2020. Nikola selected Buckeye, Arizona, as its semi-production home. Tesla has promised its Semi for 2019.
Nikola CEO, Trevor Milton, said the company will build to order and is not speculating on production volume. Thus far, the company has received $9 billion in pre-order reservations. It's unclear how much a single Nikola semi will cost, and neither Anheuser-Busch nor Nikola shared what the latest deal is worth. The semi maker said its goal is to eventually have Nikola semis cost as much as a typical diesel-powered rig, which hovers around $150,000.
According to Anheuser-Busch, replacing its fleet of trucks will reduce the company's carbon emissions from logistics by more than 18 percent and be the equivalent of taking more than 13,000 passenger vehicles off the road.
Not much, industrially, hydrogen is produced from natural gas.
I take that back, it takes a bit of coal fired electricity to cram hydrogen into high pressure containers. Quit a bit actually.
Yep. It would be great if somebody came up with a breakthrough that allowed the cheap production of hydrogen but I haven’t heard of one.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to use the methane/nat gas as fuel?
There is no “cheap production of hydrogen” without breaking the conservation of energy law. Hydrogen and oxygen are chemically bound in a lower binding energy state than when separated. You can’t get energy from nothing. The only source of free hydrogen is in space, about 500 million miles away in the atmosphere of Jupiter.
The Fork Lift Industry has tried many times to use mass produced Hydrogen Fuel cells. Most of the start up companies have gone out of business. The Hydrogen Fuel cells require too much/ costly maintenance.
Most Fork Lift Manufacturers like Toyota are turning to Lithium Ion Batteries. Way more efficient than Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Cleaner and cheaper to operate.
Probably make more sense to run off LP gas with on board steam reformer.
If I recall correctly H2 fuel cells are about 50% efficient, Diesel can be about 40% with traffic and transfer losses is probably about 30% for a commercial truck on the highway, significantly lower on surface roads.
If the reformer were small and light enough, you might just come within spitting distance of being cost effective.
Trying to cram hydrogen into tanks, I don’t think it would ever be cost effective.
If you burn it, you lose at a minimum 60% of the energy to heat, another 10-20% transferring the energy to the wheels, then some to heat your brake pads every time you slow down.
I’m assuming they are using a fuel cell which can send about 50% of the energy directly to the wheels, add a battery and regenerative braking and you save a little more fuel.
Nobody is making a fuel cell that fits into a truck that can digest NG.
Well, Tesla has part of his fleet half way there already!
My undergrad thesis is 92 was on hydrogen fuel cell buses
I was too early
His Model 3 Cars are way behind schedule and the promised 35K variant will probably be made in very limited quantity (loss leader) Odds are he is making little if anything on the high end 55K Model 3 which is all that is coming off his production line currently. Turnover at the Fremont factory is huge both in White and Blue Collar employees.
Elon’s melt down after Analyst put the screws to him on the Tesla Quarterly Report Conference call yesterday isn't going to help.
Error in the choice of fuel if one’s desire is to get away from diesel fuel. Methane CH4 has a slightly higher carbon footprint than Hydrogen. Its carbon footprint is very small compared to Diesel. Hydrogen fueling will be complex and expensive, about 3 times the cost of methane which is natural gas.
It should be noted that when hydrogen is burned it has a zero carbon footprint. However, it has a large footprint in its production as a lot of heat is required which mean carbon fuels are used to do this.
Natural gas actually makes sense for large commercial truck operations, particularly if the operation is large enought to afford its own high pressure compressors to avail themselves of the abundance of cheap natural gas we have now and will have for many many years.
Forgot to add, This is nothing but a “feel good publicity operation by Budweiser. If one considers what Budweiser tastes like it would be a boon to humanity if every damn one of those trucks failed to work. The only beer worse than Budweiser is Coors light and Corona. Oddly enough Modelo of Mexico makes that swill Corona but at the same time a most excellent Modelo Negra.
If you are not drinking a good bitter or ale, you are drinking swill.
I thought about posting a picture of an alpine horn.
Oh, the Hugh Manatee!
Imagine global warming if you replaced co2 with water vapor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUg_ukBwsyo
With todays technology one would think they could get steam back into production.
Hydrogen dissipates too fast, when a tank is punctured, for their to be a risk of explosion.
The real trouble with hydrogen is storage. It is too small an atom to store for long. Even the best tanks will self-empty eventually, if not used.
“Hydrocarbons are the most economical source from which to extract hydrogen.”
I suppose the environment, not efficiency, is what draws attention to hydrogen.
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