CNH Industrial and Nikola Corporation are collaborating on the development and production of a complete line-up of zero-emissions heavy-duty trucks. In this episode of CNH's Behind The Wheel series, the company goes behind the scenes with the teams who are working on turning that vision into reality.
IVECO and FPT Industrial, the commercial vehicle and powertrain brands of CNH Industrial N.V., began their collaboration with Nikola at the end of 2019 with the aim of developing and deploying zero-emission Class 8 heavy-duty trucks, powered by both battery and hydrogen fuel-cell, in North America and Europe. By leveraging the partners’ respective expertise and technological know-how, the project has very quickly moved from the drawing board to the trial stages with the prototypes already built.
The film follows the first Nikola Tre battery-electric vehicle (BEV) prototype on its journey beginning at the IVECO manufacturing facility in Ulm, Germany, the production hub for European Manufacturing Joint Venture between CNH Industrial and Nikola.
On arrival by ship in Baltimore, the truck is transported across the U.S. turning heads and garnering admiring comments along the way for its original and innovative design finally arriving at the Nikola headquarters prior to continuing on to proving grounds in Phoenix, AZ. Here the validation and commissioning testing begins and the truck is put through its paces in a series of increasingly demanding trials designed to test powertrain performance and durability.
The film contains an in-depth interview with Pablo Cebrian Robles, VP of Engineering, Heavy and Medium Trucks for IVECO, with additional comments from the Nikola team, as they receive the prototype for the first time on U.S. soil.
