Next year, NMC will debut its Nikola Zero utility vehicle (UTV), targeting military applications with its four-seat dessert runner.
Milton says secondary uses cover a range of work and recreation, including the mining segment which has increasingly turned to UTVs for their compact size and ability to handle aggressive terrain. However, deep in a mine shaft UTV emissions can be deadly.
Enter the all-wheel-drive Nikola Zero. The Zero squeezes upwards of 550 hp from its silent, emission-free, electric motors. That’s more than three times the horsepower available from a Polaris RZR Turbo Fox.
Nikola’s high-performance dune buggy is more than a plaything in a life-size sandbox. Milton says many of the elements his team used on the Zero – like its stability control, torque vectoring, over-the-air updates, autonomous software and hardware, steer by motor, and battery characterization – will make its way to the Nikola One tractor when production gets underway.
On a 46 mile trek through the St. George, Utah desert, the pre-production Zero absolutely obliterated every sandy dune and rocky ledge that was thrown in its path. And in a few cases, it dusted more well-known players in the segment like the RZR and Can Am.
Torque peaked at about 470 lb. ft. while scaling sheer ledges and navigating hairpin turns – no easy feat for a vehicle loaded down with 800-plus pounds of four grown men acting like kids in the dessert.
