In anticipation of Sunday’s Super Bowl, Nikola hydrogen fuel cell and BYD Motors battery-electric trucks made beer runs to Los Angeles-area pubs, a marketing ploy within a model of sustainable transportation delivery.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because the two companies collaborated to bring suds to a St. Louis Blues hockey game in November 2019. The trucks utilized back then were very early versions of those used this week. In truth, the Nikola Tre cabover daycab sailing Interstate 405 was not even intended for sale in the United States at the time.
This time, the cargo was Bud Light NEXT, the brewer’s first zero-carb beer, carried in zero-emissions vehicles. Bud intends to reduce carbon emissions by 25% across its value chain by 2025.
Three-month trial
Nikola’s hydrogen-powered Tre models began a three-month trial this month with Anheuser-Busch, which bought up to 800 Nikola fuel cell trucks four years ago to assist in the transformation of its long-haul dedicated fleet to zero-emission vehicles. The two Tre alpha fuel cell electric vehicles are in regular usage throughout the brewer’s Southern California network.
The purpose of the pilot is to fine-tune the production specifications and features of the Nikola (NASDAQ: NKLA) vehicles, as well as to determine whether fuel cells, which are thought to be a promising zero-emission alternative for long-haul transportation, make sense as delivery trucks.
The fuel cell Tre picked up a load of beer from Anheuser-Busch’s brewery in Van Nuys and drove south to deliver it to the Anheuser-Busch AB One distribution facility in Carson. The beer was then carried to local taverns by a BYD battery-electric 8TT day cab tractor.
This year, Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD) will add 20 BYD electric trucks to its California fleet.
The brewer presently employs 25 BYD trucks across four California distribution locations, 21 of which are part of a zero-emission beverage handling operation.
