Nissan Hercules Alpha: While electric truck makers like Tesla, Nikola and Canoo get a lot of headlines, we haven’t heard much about Hercules Electric Mobility. Hercules makes electric marine motors and plans to produce a new truck called the Alpha.
Although we don’t know much, the company’s batteries could be the basis of a new electric Nissan truck. Hercules announced in July that the company’s new truck will be designed by the Italian design firm Pininfarina.
Most people know the Pininfarina name from the Ferraris it designed. The company says the truck should have 1,000 horsepower. Although it has an ambitious timeline for producing the truck, Car and Driver says it could be here by the end of 2022.
Its executives are veterans, with founder James Breyer a former GM engineer who led powertrain development for the Chevrolet Volt. Bloomberg recently reported that Nissan is in talks with Hercules.
Nissan to buy battery-electric powertrain for Nissan truck Shares parts of its own truck. One look at the pictures of the Hercules Alfa and even a casual observer will say “it looks like a Nissan Titan”. It has all the features of the Titan except for the EV-style grille and large LED taillight.
But, a bit unclear why Nissan would need help developing an electric powertrain. Its Nissan LEAF has been one of the best-selling and most affordable EVs on the market for years.
It also launched the Aria all-electric SUV. The Aria has 238 horsepower and a range of 304 miles. Hercules seems to be going further in the development of motors for boats. Its Hercules Electric Marine brand makes motors up to 250 horsepower that use conventional solid-state batteries and lithium-ion batteries.
Like EV cars, they are quiet and non-polluting. The battery packs come in 43 kWh, 63 kWh and 94 kWh versions. It will start delivering electric Koch Marine Group boats in 2023.
