Nikola May Rating $1 Million a Day in Hydrogen Incentives
Nikola Corp. headquarters in Phoenix, Ariz. (Ash Ponders/Bloomberg Information)
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If electrical automobile firm Nikola Corp. can get its hydrogen gasoline cell vehicles and filling station community in operation, the corporate may pull in a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands a yr from incentives within the Biden administration’s Inflation Discount Act.
Key amongst them is an incentive for as a lot as $3 per kilogram of hydrogen produced. If Nikola hits its aim of manufacturing 300,000 kilograms of hydrogen per day, the corporate may financial institution near $1 million a day from the federal authorities. California affords one other $1 to $2 per kilogram for meting out hydrogen. Elements of the IRA, together with incentives for hydrogen autos, are nonetheless being finalized.
“IRA is large for us,” Nikola CEO Michael Lohscheller mentioned. “We wish to construct your complete hydrogen ecosystem. For us, the hydrogen piece is probably the most enticing.”
IRA is large for us. We wish to construct your complete hydrogen ecosystem. For us, the hydrogen piece is probably the most enticing.
Nikola CEO Michael Lohscheller
That’s saying one thing as a result of the incentives for hydrogen vehicles are additionally large. The present draft of the IRA would give $40,000 per hydrogen-powered truck bought. California provides an extra $288,000 per truck bought, which will get the price of Nikola’s vehicles close to parity with diesel autos, Lohscheller mentioned.
The corporate presently produces one electrical mannequin of its semi-truck, the Tre BEV, and is on course to begin constructing its hydrogen-powered vehicles within the second half of this yr, Lohscheller mentioned. However constructing a market received’t be straightforward. Consumers want hydrogen to maintain the vehicles working and that requires new infrastructure and allowing in some instances.
EV firms like Nikola additionally have had a troublesome time hitting manufacturing and gross sales targets. Nikola made 258 of its deliberate 300 electrical semitrucks final yr.
Nikola went public in June 2020 via a reverse merger, and shares have since fallen beneath their preliminary itemizing worth. The corporate’s inventory has fallen 31% up to now this yr.
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