MILAN Italy's Iveco Group has agreed to buy the full ownership of its joint venture with U.S. start-up Nikola developing battery electric and fuel cell heavy-duty trucks, the two companies said on Tuesday.

Iveco Group will focus on Europe for the further development and commercialisation of its own battery electric and fuel cell electric trucks, while Nikola will concentrate its operations in North America, they said in a statement.

Iveco will invest $35 million and buy 20 million Nikola shares, using its available liquidity.

The Italian truckmaker said that, despite the negative cash impact generated by the deal, it expected to absorb it with cash flow generation so there would be no impact on its cash flow target for this year.

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari, editing by Gavin Jones)