Shares of embattled electrical truck producer Nikola surged throughout early buying and selling Thursday after the corporate reconfirmed manufacturing targets and introduced a restricted collaboration on hydrogen fueling stations with TravelCenters of America.

The plans embody putting in hydrogen fueling stations for heavy-duty vehicles at two websites in California for TravelCenters of America, which is the biggest publicly traded firm that runs full-service journey facilities within the U.S. The preliminary stations are “a primary step for the events to discover the mutual improvement of a nationwide community,” in line with Nikola.

Shares of Nikola seesawed in Thursday morning buying and selling, hovering by greater than 21% after board member Jeffrey Ubben instructed CNBC the corporate is “just about on track” concerning its manufacturing plans.

Most notably, buyer manufacturing of its first semitruck, a battery-electric car referred to as the Nikola Tre, starting in Europe within the fourth quarter, adopted by a plant in Arizona coming on-line to supply the car in 2022.

“We’re checking packing containers,” he mentioned throughout CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “There’s great momentum right here. The workforce is head-down right here. That is all I can say.”

Nikola inventory was buying and selling at at $12.20 a share as of 10:55 a.m., up about 18%. The shares, which as soon as traded as excessive as $93.99, fell under $10 earlier within the week for the primary time because the firm went public through a reverse merger with a particular objective acquisition firm, or SPAC, in June. Nikola, which was briefly valued greater than Ford Motor final 12 months, now has a market worth of lower than $4 billion.

The collaboration between Nikola and TravelCenters of America is topic to negotiations and execution of a definitive deal agreed upon by each corporations, in line with a press launch.

“The important thing right here actually is to have this built-in resolution,” Ubben mentioned. “The hydrogen stations and the fuel-cell truck.”

Hydrogen fuel-cell electrical automobiles are considered as a long-range resolution for the trucking trade, which is trying to maneuver away from diesel-powered vehicles. They function much like battery-electric vehicles however are powered by electrical energy generated from hydrogen and oxygen as an alternative of pure batteries.

FCEVs are also faster to gas than battery-electric automobiles, which the automotive and trucking industries are also exploring for shorter journeys. However additionally they characteristic lots of the similar hurdles reminiscent of greater prices and charging/fueling infrastructure.

In a separate vote of confidence for hydrogen gas cell expertise, international auto provider Bosch introduced plans Thursday to take a position 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) within the expertise via 2024. The German-based firm believes the marketplace for hydrogen in Europe might be price virtually 40 billion euros ($48.2 billion) by 2030 – with annual progress charges of 65%.