Nikola Motors Is Trying to Get Patents For Its Battery Assembly, Semi Door
Nikola Patent Application/USPTO
Searching through patent applications continues to reveal quirky ideas and concepts from electric vehicle companies, big and small. Nikola Motors, the company that wants to introduce a hydrogen electric semi next year, has applied for two patents for its vehicles, one for the battery in it’s upcoming utility task vehicles (i.e., powersport rides), and one that revolves around the door to the truck. Yes, the door.
Reading with a layman’s eyes, the battery patent application doesn’t seem to contain anything groundbreaking. Like most vehicle traction batteries, the one described here is wide and flat, but it has cooling plates that comprise an I-shaped cross section and cylindrical battery cells that are oriented horizontally because, “positioning cells as in horizontally stacked rows can provide improved flexibility in capacity and even weight distribution” for the electric utility terrain vehicles, Nikola says.
