German automotive supplier Robert Bosch GmbH has started mass production of fuel cell engines at its Stuttgart-Feuerbach factory, one of the ‘oldest’ of the group’s numerous factories worldwide. The first fuel power modules are going to American electric truck startup Nikola, whose Class 8 hydrogen truck should come to the US market in the third quarter of this year.

The Bosch plant in Bamberg, Germany, will supply the Feuerbach factory with the fuel-cell stack and system components such as the electric air compressor and the recirculation blower come from the Bosch plant in Homburg. Simultaneously, production will also start in Chongqing, China. Bosch plans to also manufacture stacks at its US plant in Anderson, South Carolina later on.

2,5 billion euros investment

The German supplier invests 2.5 billion euros in hydrogen technology development and production, from electrolyzers over stationary solid-oxide fuel cell backup systems to fuel cell modules for vehicles, especially heavy trucks. In a fuel cell power module, hydrogen is converted into electric power by combining it with oxygen.

Bosch expects one in five new trucks weighing six tons or more to feature a fuel-cell powertrain by 2030. More than 3 000 people are working on hydrogen technologies for Bosch, more than half of them in Europe. Bosch expects to realize five billion euros in sales in H2 technologies by 2030.

150 hydrogen trucks for 2023

Nikola Corporation, with its own manufacturing site in Coolidge, Arizona, reported it expects to deliver 250 to 300 of its battery-electric Tre trucks to dealers and 125 to 150 hydrogen fuel cell versions.

Nikola’s Tre is based on the Iveco S-Way platform. With the Italian van and truck manufacturer, part of CNH Industrial, Nikola had set up a joint venture in Ulm, Germany, for building the Tre. The site in Ulm is Iveco’s chassis engineering hub, which is to become the group’s leading hub for fuel-cell technology.

Divorced from Iveco

In May, both parties announced going their own way, the Iveco focussing on Europe, Nikola on its North American market. Iveco will assume full ownership of the joint venture in Ulm, Germany. Iveco Group acquires the JV partially by paying in cash ($35 million) and by getting 20 million Nikola shares.

Both companies said in a press release they are “excited to enter a new phase of their partnership, which started in 2019 and has so far met all milestones to leverage the respective expertise to deploy zero-emission heavy-duty (Class 8) trucks in North America and Europe.” Smart talk to say it’s no messy divorce?

The hydrogen version of the Nikola Tre was presented at the IAA Transportation in Hannover in September 2022 as a ‘beta version’, which was believed to indicate a nearly-production-ready prototype. It should be able to cover around 800 km, and production was to start in  2023.

End of January 2023, Iveco announced with Nikola that it had reeled in an order from GP Joule, a system provider for integrated energy solutions based in Reussenkoege, Germany, for 100 fuel cell trucks. Thirty of the initial 100 Nikola Tre FCEVs were expected to be delivered to GP Joule in 2024 and the remaining 70 in 2025.