The Phoenix-based company on Thursday reported a $690.4 million loss for 2021 as it poured money into its factory in Coolidge, Arizona, and a truck assembly line in Ulm, Germany, at a plant operated by European partner IVECO. Production of battery-electric Tre BEV semis starts in late March, and Nikola wants to deliver as many as 500 this year—if it can get enough lithium-ion cells and other components. Longer-range hydrogen trucks are to be built from 2023.

"If people think that we're not able to build a truck, they'll be disappointed," CEO Mark Russell tells Forbes. Interest in its trucks from fleet operators is rising since Nikola started getting early battery-electric units to customer TTSI to test at the Port of Los Angeles late last year. And in January Anheuser-Busch, Nikola's biggest potential customer, started delivering beer in Los Angeles with two prototype Tre FCEV hydrogen-powered big rigs.