Allison Transmission has collaborated with Nikola Corporation, a global leader in zero-emissions transportation, energy supply, and infrastructure solutions, to test its Class 8 battery-electric vehicle (BEV) and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) at Allison’s Vehicle Electrification and Environmental Test (VE+ET) centre.
“We’re proud to collaborate with Nikola as they develop innovative, next-generation vehicles designed to reduce emissions and optimize performance,” said David Proctor, General Manager, Allison VE+ET. “Our facility has the capabilities to support external customer test and validation programs for vehicles powered by every major propulsion type, which reinforces Allison’s commitment to taking a leadership role in the development of alternative fuel options for the commercial vehicle industry.”
The two businesses worked together to test the performance of BEVs and FCEVs using controlled temperature settings and dynamometer road simulations capable of mimicking a wide range of duty cycles. To enable for uninterrupted test runs, Nikola’s hydrogen refuelling equipment was used, as well as a continual flow of hydrogen provided by the facility. The cars were evaluated by monitoring battery management and HVAC testing, which used sun simulation to simulate severe temperatures.
The VE+ET centre offers OEMs various advantages, including the opportunity to perform testing in a safe, regulated, uniform environment, resulting in secure, dependable, reproducible results. Allison mimics real-world applications and environment conditions at the facility, helping OEMs to shorten product development and validation times, letting them to bring novel technologies and automotive systems to market faster and more efficiently. Furthermore, compared to on-road testing, doing testing in a condensed timeframe that is not reliant on seasonal climate and road conditions results in lower expenses.
“Leveraging the capabilities of Allison’s VE+ET Center has been a key enabler for Nikola to accelerate our product development cycle and confidently bring to market our Tre BEV early last year,” said Nikola Head of Vehicle Validation, Adam Tarleton.
