GM and Nikola partner up to bring the Badger EV Pickup to market.

The deal includes a $2 billion exchange now between Nikola Corp. and General Motors and a sharing of about $4 billion in total business over five years.

“Nikola is one of the most innovative companies in the world. General Motors is one of the top engineering and manufacturing companies in the world. You couldn’t dream of a better partnership than this,” said Nikola Founder and Executive Chairman Trevor Milton. “By joining together, we get access to their validated parts for all of our programs, General Motors’ Ultium battery technology and a multi-billion dollar fuel cell program ready for production. Nikola immediately gets decades of supplier and manufacturing knowledge, validated and tested production-ready EV propulsion, world-class engineering and investor confidence. Most importantly, General Motors has a vested interest to see Nikola succeed. We made three promises to our stakeholders and have now fulfilled two out of three promises ahead of schedule. What an exciting announcement.”

We are focusing on the Badger aspect of the partnership, but it goes well beyond that. GM’s strategic partnership with Nikola also includes massive cost reductions through Nikola’s programs. These are to include the Nikola Badger, Nikola Tre, Nikola One, Nikola Two and NZT. As part of this new agreement, Nikola will utilize General Motors’ Ultium battery system and Hydrotec fuel cell technology, representing a key commercialization milestone for General Motors.

The new GM-Nicola agreement extends General Motors’ utilization of its fuel cell technology to the Class 7/8 semi-truck market which represents a high-volume commercialization of its leading Hydrotec fuel cell system. This only complements the company’s battery-electric propulsion. Industry experts say that fuel cells will become increasingly important to the semi-truck market because they are more efficient than gas or diesel.

“This strategic partnership with Nikola, an industry-leading disrupter, continues the broader deployment of General Motors’ all-new Ultium battery and Hydrotec fuel cell systems,” said General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “We are growing our presence in multiple high-volume EV segments while building scale to lower battery and fuel cell costs and increase profitability. In addition, applying General Motors’ electrified technology solutions to the heavy-duty class of commercial vehicles is another important step in fulfilling our vision of a zero-emissions future.”

Watch for more developments on the Nikola-GM partnership. It is clear that GM intends to move aggressively into electrified trucks, and will partner with others to do so when it makes business sense.