The first 5,000 trucks reserved will receive free fuel for their first million miles, offsetting the truck’s total purchase price and giving owners an immediate return on investment, the company says.
Fuel is used to power the onboard turbine, which keeps the trucks batteries charged.
The company defines its free fuel offer like this: “the purchaser of the Nikola One will receive an allowance of 100,000 gallons of compressed natural gas (CNG) to be utilized at any NMC fueling station by the specific truck purchased. This will functionally reduce the cost of the truck by the amount the owner would have paid for diesel over that same 1,000,000 miles. The current federal credit of [50 cents] per gallon given to CNG fueling stations is retained by Nikola Motor Company to help offset the fuel cost to NMC,” the company says. “[One hundred percent] of the trucks offset cost is calculated by 1 million miles / (average diesel MPG of 6) = 166,666 gallons of diesel at $2.50 per gallon = $416,666.”
Prices of the Nikola One will range from $350,000 to $415,000, depending on options.
Reservations will set you back a fully-refundable $1,500 and NMC says the trucks will be delivered in the order in which they are received.
Company founder Trevor Milton says the free fuel program is only available on units spec’d with CNG-powered turbines.
