Nikola Badger’s reserves open when CEO takes a veiled coup at Tesla

The Nikola Badger is another electric truck challenger eager to fight in a segment that is quickly filling with contenders. Although the startup focused largely on semi trucks of hydrogen and electricity has not shown a badger prototype, it is ready for open orders.

The company said Monday that it will open pre-orders today. Anyone interested should make a deposit of $ 5,000 that CEO Trevor Milton said is fully refundable. He appeared to take a hit on Tesla and his “fan club” in a tweet announcing pre-orders.

Deposits are returned until you choose your final colors, specifications, and your truck enters the assembly line. Without penalty. Now let’s see that our competitors also agree with that. Who is solid, who is not. Nikola is solid.

– Trevor Milton (@nikolatrevor) June 28, 2020

A reservation will also grant an individual a ticket to Nikola World, which will take place in December. There, the company plans to share much more information about the Badger collect. However, Nikola still has some amazing specs floating around for the truck.

The plan is to offer the Badger as a purely electric truck and offer a hybrid fuel cell / electric battery powertrain. The standard electric powertrain will likely reach 300 miles in range, while the hydrogen / electricity combo is supposed to travel 600 miles. Early specs also trigger 906 horsepower and 980 foot-pounds of torque, plus a 0-60 mph time of 2.9 seconds.

Badger already faces quite stiff competition between established automakers and other startups. Ford and General Engines everyone has plans to electric trucks. Startup Rivian looks very credible with his R1Tand of course the Tesla Cybertruck It is slated for production by the end of next year.

Nikola plans to design and engineer the collection at home, but the company does not plan to build it. Instead, it will work with another automaker to bring the truck into production. We don’t know which automaker Nikola has in mind, but this partnership will be announced before December, according to the company.