Nikola Gets $185,000 Incentive Boost, Way Ahead of Tesla
Nikola is going from strength to strength these days — just weeks after announcing that early customers had begun taking delivery of the brand’s Tre battery-electric semi trucks, the brand has announced that its trucks have officially qualified for massive incentives in the State of New York, where the the New York Truck Voucher Incentive Program (NYVIP) is good for up to $185,000 in rebates. (!)
Yes. That’s per truck. And, for those of you keeping score, that’s significantly more than businesses get in ultra EV-friendly California, which caps out at “just” $150,000 per truck for its state-run incentive programs
And — yes, again! — the Nikola has also qualified for that!
In Tesla v. Nikola, Nikola is Winning
As it stands, Tesla — which has set a number of deadlines for the launch of its “Tesla Semi” truck since it was first shown in all the way back in 2017 — has yet to deliver the 15 trucks that were promised to PepsiCo in Q4 of 2021. Nikola, Kenworth, Mack, and Volvo, meanwhile, all have electric semis in the field.
Heck — Volvo is already on its second-generation of VNR electric semis, and I got to ride one of those, too, at ACT back in May.
Despite being many, many times bigger than tiny Nikola, it’s the “David” here that seems to be getting the job done while the world waits for Elon to deliver on his promised Tesla Semis. Serial production of its “Tre” electric semi began on March 21, with shipment to customers beginning in April, but many (including us!) were too distracted by the Tesla “Cyber Rodeo” event to notice.
Which, in hindsight, may have been the point.
Regardless, the company’s ability to offer these massive incentives on their trucks is a huge boost for the Arizona-based trucking startup, which hasn’t always been in the news for the right reasons (you can Google that, or just click here).
Nikola brass gets it. “We reached a significant milestone with the start of serial production for the Tre BEV at our Coolidge, Arizona manufacturing facility and are currently delivering saleable trucks to dealers for customer deliveries,” said Mark Russell, the Nikola CEO who took over from Trevor Milton two years ago. “We look forward to scaling production and delivering 300-500 production vehicles to customers this year.”
The rebates are administered by the New York State Energy and Research Development Authority (NYSERDA) and are to a limited pool of first-come, first-served customers who, if they’re reading this, should act fast to apply. If they do, they’ll be getting a really nice office with a nationwide view.
Nikola Tre Interior
Source | Images: Nikola.
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