Enlarge / The Nikola Badger.Nikola Motors

On Tuesday morning, General Motors announced that it was entering into a partnership with Nikola Motor Company, the hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) startup. For its part, Nikola is bringing $2 billion to the table in the form of newly issued stock, an 11 percent share in the company. In return, it appears GM will do pretty much everything else—engineering, homologating, validating, and manufacturing battery EV and FCEV variants of the Nikola Badger pickup truck.

"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. We are growing our presence in multiple high-volume EV segments while building scale to lower battery and fuel cell costs and increase profitability," said General Motors chairperson and CEO Mary Barra in a statement.

"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 couldnt dream of a better partnership than this,” said Trevor Milton, founder and CEO of Nikola.

The deal extends beyond the Badger pickup, which is tentatively scheduled to go into production in 2022. Nikola will use GM technology throughout its programs, including GM's new Ultium lithium-ion battery platform.

Nikola will even use GM's Hydrotec hydrogen fuel cells in its class 7 and class 8 trucks, which should raise questions as to what exactly Read More – Source

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