Bosch and Hanwha invest 230 million in Nikola
US startup Nikola, specialising in fuel cell and battery trucks, has announced that German companies Bosch and Hanwha have invested a total of 230 million dollars with at least 100 million dollars each.
This comes just a few days after the Iveco owner CNH Industrial became the main investor with a 250 million dollar investment. A joint venture for the development of trucks in Europe is also being established with parent company Iveco. In the course of the “Series D” investment round, Nikola wants to earn a total of one billion dollars.
The cooperation with Bosch is nothing new for Nikola. For years, the German supplier has been an important development partner for fuel cells and battery technology for heavy trucks. “Bosch’s investment confirms its commitment to the development of hydrogen technology and hydrogen infrastructure,” writes Nikola.
Hanwha manufactures solar modules and other renewable energy equipment. For Nikola, Hanwha supplies solar modules to generate clean hydrogen with green electricity. “Bosch can help us commercialize very complex vehicle components and Hanwha can provide us with clean energy at hydrogen locations where possible.,” says Nikola CEO Trevor Milton. “Rather than going at this alone like many startups do, my goal was to build the most powerful network of partners in the world, and I believe we have done a pretty good job at that with CNHI, Bosch, Hanwha and others.”
In the investment announced earlier this week by CNH Industrial, Nikola announced that it would build a hydrogen infrastructure in North America and Europe together with CNH’s FPT and Iveco brands – Iveco and FPT had “made a significant contribution to the development and expansion of the European natural gas refuelling network”. With the investment of Bosch and Hanwha, Nikola sees this hydrogen ecosystem being driven forward.
Nikola already operates the largest hydrogen filling station in the USA at its headquarters in Phoenix. According to the company, this can deliver and store over a ton of hydrogen per day. For future Nikola stations, the startup is targeting a value of eight metric tons so that it can quickly refuel an increasing number of fuel cell trucks.
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