Nikola Motor Company
nikolamotor.com
nikolamotor.com
The truck looks neat, though.
But Musk isn't a Tesla family member or anything, right? Morally speaking, what gives Musk the right to use Tesla's name as an homage, but somehow this other guy doesn't have the same right? If Musk can call his company Tesla, somebody else using the name Nikola should be fair game.
It's probably not the wisest naming choice in the long run, but hey, people are already talking about it, so in a sense it's something that will get them some attention.
The legal question under US trademark law is whether a reasonable consumer is likely to be confused by the name and erroneously infer that some sort of relationship or endorsement exists between the two companies.
As Tesla is a rather obscure figure among the general public, my personal view is that average consumers will not be confused and the Nikola Motors name does not infringe Tesla Motors' trademark. However, that is far from clear-cut would be subject to endless dispute in court, probably with both sides producing survey and focus group results promoting their interpretation.
...and heavy has stopped looking like a real word now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffal...
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Proteus_Steinmetz
Turns out bowiemotors.com is already taken[2].
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88_6SQKuTHk
[2]: Yes, I tried to register it ;)
(EDIT: Foot-note formatting)
Eisenhower pushed through the interstate highway system.
We just had this popup here the other day with the "Hydrogen" project which the guy used without research and it turned out that it was already used by someone else. Could've named these After himself or anything.
What happened to trying to come up with clever unique names?
Also, why would you redesign the cabin from scratch if what's unique is the drivetrain?
"NO COMPETITION"
"MANY TIMES CLEANER THAN DIESEL ENGINES"
"Nikola Motor Company is not currently accepting walk in visitors. After we launch the vehicles at the live press release later this year, contact numbers and locations will be provided for visits."
The Nevada corporate filing for Bluegentech, LLC:
http://nvsos.gov/SOSEntitySearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=EAF...
And is apparently run by a guy named Troy A Wallin.
I hate it when companies put up a web site and then don't say the least bit about who manages the company or is involved in it in some way. Does make things look less than honest.
EDIT: I also found in an article the name of the CEO, and here is his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theofficialtrevormilton ... Not sure if there actually is a direct relationship to Bluegentech, LLC... the Nikola Motor Company from the article is described as being Salt Lake City, Utah based. Bluegentech, LLC is registered as a foreign company in Utah. (And, yes, I am just avoiding real work this morning.)
2nd EDIT: Ok there is a relationship.... another Nevada corporate filing (DHYBRID, INC.) links Troy A Wallin to Trevor Milton: http://nvsos.gov/SOSEntitySearch/CorpDetails.aspx?lx8nvq=QQd...
(Ah the joy of public filings)
Final EDIT: It's interesting. Going back to the original idea that the company had a fly-by-night feel. I now know that the people involved have some actual experience in their industry (at least generally). My perception of them, while still very limited, is somewhat better. I can't help but thinking that being a little more upfront about the principals would improve their first impressions... despite the name ;-)
Let them put whatever they want on their website. Let us mock them. All is well.
Edit: I wonder if nikola motor is a subsidiary of http://worthingtonindustries.com ?
Apparently they put up the website with their 3d models a few days ago.
"NEVER PLUG IN - TURBINE CHARGES BATTERIES AUTOMATICALLY WHILE DRIVING"
1) Why natural gas to run the turbine and not, say, diesel? It seems natural to run the truck on diesel, if nothing else so the driver can hang out with his friends and show it off at the local truck stop.
2) There's only renders, no photos. They haven't actually built one yet? At least that high-efficiency truck Wal-Mart was/is testing, they actually built the thing before they started crowing about it.,
I have no problem with making use of natural gas reserves, I just figured a diesel option would make adoption easier on truck drivers.
"At Nikola Motor Company, we’ve decided to invest in American energy. Nikola owns the rights to its own natural gas wells along with the Nikola One fleet that transports the natural gas from the wells to the stations. With 7 wells on a single property, Nikola can pump out millions of gallons of clean natural gas each day. Nikola plans on having more than 5 well sites for redundancy throughout the United States. Complete vertical integration removes market uncertainties and allows Nikola Motor to control its own prices and keep them that way for Nikola customers. Nikola bypasses all the gas companies, liquifies the gas on site, then delivers it to the station through its fleet of electric trucks."
The trucks appear, in part, to be a method of arbitraging future LNG prices which have been going down, and can be expected to continue to fall for the foreseeable future as more and more wells keep coming on line.
* The whole thing is a scam
* It's a copycat company
* The backers have money and/or connections but no taste or business sense
All from a name. Congrats guys, way to crater a business before it even gets off the ground. It's like trying to compete with Ford by naming your company "Henry".
I think that they are legitimate because the "What's Inside" photo for the Nikola One is definitely an export from a real CAD model [4]. And Google Image search cannot find the photos they have on their social media profiles used anywhere else besides when referring to them [5]. That said, they seem distinctly in the prototype phase and have a long way to go before actually shipping something. Tesla took 6 years to ship less than 150 cars. [6]
[1] https://twitter.com/nikolamotor
[2] https://www.facebook.com/nikolamotorcompany
[3] http://whois.domaintools.com/nikolamotor.com
[4] https://nikolamotor.com/one#safety (my dad does mechanical engineering, and the only place I've seen pictures like the one on Nikola's page is in CAD exports)
[5] (monster URL, had to shorten) http://tinyurl.com/zsvt8hx
I mean, even ignoring the naming (which only makes sense as parody), nobody is going to put down nearly $1000 to reserve a car based on what looks like a bunch of early 2000s 3D renders, right?
That said, it isn't a particularly funny joke, there's not really even any subtle humor here, but at the same time I can't understand how this could be a real thing.
UTV = Utility Task Vehicle
"UTVs differ from all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) in that UTVs typically have a side-by-side seating arrangement, many have seat belts and roll-over protection, and most have a cargo box at the rear of the vehicle. UTVs generally have a higher payload capability and are longer and wider than ATVs"[0]
I'm amazed by how many people around me, in rural Idaho, have spent ~$15K on one.
But, even assuming this thing is real, no one is going to spend $42K on one. Especially when I suspect there's a significant overlap between "people who are skeptical of electric vehicles" and "people who are likely to purchase a UTV".
You'll notice they left price out of their comparison table, because it would look like this:
* NIKOLA ZERO: $42,000
* POLARIS RZR 1000 TURBO: $24,999
* CANAM MAVERICK TURBO: $22,999
* ARTIC CAT WILDCAT: $20,999
And they're comparing the Zero to top of the line most expensive models from their competitors. I think the average purchase price is probably much closer to $15K on a UTV.
I will say that the pricing is the one thing that lends credibility to this company. I expect building a good electric UTV really would cost close to $40K. If I were just trying to build hype, I'd price it much closer to my competitors.
[1] https://www.sema.org/sema-news/2014/07/utility-task-vehicles...
"The company is run by Trevor Milton, a former executive at dHybrid Systems, which developed a CNG system for tractor-trailers that’s now owned by Worthington Industries."
[1] http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2016/05/11/nikola-motors-slee...
Noise levels may actually be the big one, as it can allow a crew to work in designated quite hours which some communities have.
If the founders need a software engineer with experience in emission testing, fuel economy testing, info-tainment programming, and engine control programming email: codylaeder@gmail.com based in Detroit willing to relocate (but you appear based there too).
An early stage startup will give you every reason not to jump on board. But the current state of the industry is riddled with inefficiencies most self created due to managerial decisions made half to a quarter century ago (then adopted by competitors). A lot of these make adopting new methodologies and technologies impossible.
I'd rather work on solving problems then working around them.
> NEVER PLUG IN - TURBINE CHARGES BATTERIES AUTOMATICALLY WHILE DRIVING
On the 'Nikola One' page. Of course this isn't possible.
This is nothing new technology-wise.
First, series hybrids are generally a bad idea for road-going vehicles, where a mechanical link is a) pretty straightforward and b) a lot more efficient at cruise, which is where fuel economy really matters for most applications.
Secondly, gas turbines are primarily an advantage where power-to-weight ratio is important (much more of a concern in, say, a helicopter than a heavy truck). They are generally less efficient than diesels, especially at the size needed to power a truck, and even more so when running at less than full power. (Incidentally, diesels are pretty trivial to convert to run on CNG).
This approach (minus the energy storage) has been tried for locomotives and found to be lacking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_turbine_locomotive.
That is also what's confusing about the reservation price. If I was a buyer of trucks on a fleet, you can be darn sure that I'm paying more than $1,500 to land a truck.
Also, from memory, burning CNG generates about half the pollution of burning diesel.
Knock knock. Who's there? Physics.
With the range of 1000 miles A - it can provide enough distance for arriving at a cargo bay; B - enough distance before the driver is required to rest (at 50mph that's about 20 hours of driving) and can recharge the truck.
Aside from the obvious environmental impact (as long as the electric source is not coal), an electric truck makes it an easier pathway for having autonomous trucking.
[0] https://www.facebook.com/nikolamotorcompany/photos/a.1758627...
I hear Infinium Labs is no longer taken.
Here is the dHYBRID website, now under Worthington. http://worthingtonindustries.com/Products/On-board-Fueling/C...
but, natural gas has, like, a positive price and people buy it to heat their homes and stuff.
Disclosure: I'm not a Tesla owner, neither gave deposits for any of their cars, which I find very stupid, but it's not my money :)
Show us the proof. Either a prototype or a model or something that physically works. Until then it's all dreams/vaporware/scam depending on how dubious it seems.
How does that work?
Same thing as the hybrid cars with an internal combustion engine that recharge the batteries, but just in a better, more efficient way.
Totally valid concern, but I'm sure they'd be able to manage to quiet it down enough. If it's quieter under braking than typical semis that use jakebraking, it could be a win.
A diesel-electric transmission system includes a diesel engine connected to an electrical generator, creating electricity that powers electric traction motors. No clutch is required. It also is able to supply full torque at 0 RPM. Diesel-electric systems are also used in submarines and surface ships and some land vehicles.
For reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_locomotive#Transmission...
I suppose it becomes even more critical to make sure the load is well secured within the hold.
1 - the mass of the vehicle doesn't change significantly (they claim a 2k lb reduction in cab weight)
2- the limiting factor in truck accidents I have seen is tire grip not braking capacity
I would love for this to be real, I think it is an idea with great potential and a useful and disruptive use of hybrid technology...but this company sounds like pure vaporbsware to me. They claim typical rigs last 500k miles which seems seriously low to me
That said, who knows if they'll successfully make it to market. The premise behind the truck sounds quite reasonable, though I don't really get the UTV, but that's maybe because I associate similar vehicles with Dudes going on proctored hunting expeditions.
I don't see an owner-operator being willing to buy one, since if it fails on the road it could take a day or more to get it fixed/replaced.
However, I do see 2 markets for the vehicles:
1. Trucking that has a defined area of operation such as say, the truck that does local deliveries in a city covered by a listed CNG center; or a point to point route.
In such a case the long haul truckers will deliver to a big warehouse; then another trucker will load up for deliveries locally. E.g. ice cream, lettuce, carrots delivered by 3 diff. trucks to warehouse; then 1 truck to deliver a mix of these items to each local store in a grocery store chain .
2. For the Zero, there are lots of park rangers that right now have pickup trucks - they drive around the same city or state parks all the time and have 2 way radios. Since they can't go fast anyways, like 10 or 20 miles an hour, the range limitation won't kill them.