Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
On August 1st, a social media post revealed approximately 20 Nikola trucks parked at J.B. Hunt’s headquarters. The sighting has fueled speculation that the major North American supply chain provider may have acquired more vehicles following an initial order announced last year.
In July 2023, J.B. Hunt ordered 10 battery-electric and three hydrogen fuel cell trucks with the delivery of the vehicles planned for one month later.
In an interview at the FreightWaves podcast posted on Wednesday, Nikola CEO Steve Girsky was asked to address the rumors. The chief executive said that any official announcement would come at the discretion of the customer.
“Customers announce on their timeline, not our timeline. That’s all I can say but we have lots of customers trying our trucks,” Girsky stated before detailing about the current pilots from other customers.
“Some are in the demo stage, some are in the advanced demo stage, and some are working through the legalities of how to actually deploy these things,” he added.
When J.B. Hunt bought the first 13 trucks, the company said they would help the company to “focus on its sustainability efforts and reducing the intensity of its carbon emissions”.
Currently, the trucks used acquired by the supply chain solution provider, are serving its key routes mainly in Los Angeles and Phoenix with Nikola’s hydrogen brand, HYLA, supplying the hydrogen and fueling infrastructure.
In the same interview, the chief executive said the company is currently developing its in-house development of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) for Level 2 and Level 2+ autonomy.
These systems, which offer enhanced comfort features such as lane-centering and adaptive cruise control, are pivotal to the company’s current technological strategy.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
