Nikola delivers its first battery electric trucks to a SoCal drayage company

Hey, remember Nikola? You know, the electric semitruck startup that got a totally bonkers valuation and then turned out to be mostly a scam perpetrated by founder and former CEO Trevor Milton, one for which he faced three indictments?

Right — well, it turns out that the company has continued on, albeit with way less hype, and is, according to an announcement made by the company on Friday, now delivering its first Nikola Tre trucks to a company called Total Transportation Services Incorporated in Southern California.

Yeah, we’re kind of surprised, too, to be honest. This TTSI company has ordered 100 battery-electric Tre trucks for drayage — aka short-distance hauling, typically inside of a port — at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. TTSI’s order starts with four trucks, two of which are purely battery-electric, two of which are hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. The latter technology is one that Nikola initially built its brand on, but it’s unclear how far the company got before its big meltdown last year.

Nikola makes some big performance claims for the Tre on its website, including up to 350 miles of range from a 753-kilowatt-hour battery and a sustained output of 645 horsepower. It’s not totally clear if the trucks delivered to TTSI have these specs or if these specifications are even available in a vehicle you can buy now, but it’s still exciting if true.

The EV startup also has plans to take its trucks abroad, thanks to its partnership with the Port of Hamburg and IVECO trucks (the truck manufacturer on which Nikola’s Tre chassis is based), which could see up to 25 electric trucks be delivered over the next year.

We reached out to Nikola for clarification on vehicle specs, but didn’t hear back in time for publication.