EV startup Bollinger ‘indefinitely’ delays its rugged electric trucks to focus on delivery vans

Bollinger, a Michigan-based startup, introduced right now that it was suspending its plans to manufacture electric trucks so as to focus on business delivery vans.

Bollinger burst onto the scene a number of years in the past with a pair of rugged, box-like electric truck prototypes: the four-door B1 (which is formed like a Jeep Wrangler) and the B2 (which is longer and has a pickup mattress). It’s the most recent EV startup to run into velocity bumps because it makes an attempt to construct a sophisticated automobile manufacturing enterprise from scratch.

Bollinger has already delayed each automobiles, so their postponement might not come as an enormous shock to shut watchers. The trucks have been initially scheduled to go into manufacturing in 2020, however that date was moved to late 2021, with the expectation of creating a number of thousand by early 2022.

It’s the most recent EV startup to run into velocity bumps

Now, the automobiles can be “postponed indefinitely” as the corporate shifts focus to an electric delivery van, Bollinger CEO Robert Bollinger mentioned in an announcement. The corporate will refund deposits for these clients who beforehand put cash down to reserve the B1 and B2 trucks.

“The B1 and B2 are postponed indefinitely, so as to focus on business improvement,” he mentioned. “As these trucks are expensive to my coronary heart, I’d by no means say by no means. If our continued improvement in business permits us to sometime return, there’d be nobody happier than me. However there’s no timeline for that.”

The Ship-E electric van, which was introduced in 2020, is slated to be constructed on a variable automobile platform that permits for a number of battery sizes, comparable to 70 kWh, 105 kWh, 140 kWh, 175 kWh, and 210 kWh. It will imply clients may have quite a lot of vary choices, costs, and wheelbase sizes to select from. The front-wheel-drive platform can be engineered to match Lessons 2B, 3, 4, and 5.

Bollinger declined to affirm a beginning date for the van’s manufacturing, noting that the corporate remains to be on the hunt for a producing companion. “The Ship-E van was our interpretation of the form of physique that might be put on our electric platforms,” he mentioned. “We by no means supposed on constructing that physique ourselves, however we’re in talks with upfitter companions now that manufacture truck and van our bodies.”

If it will definitely graduates from idea to manufacturing, the Ship-E may have loads of competitors. Basic Motors is already transport electric vans below its BrightDrop model to clients like FedEx and Walmart. Mercedes-Benz has a number of fashions on the highway, and Ford plans to go into manufacturing this 12 months on its electrified E-Transit van.

Amazon, which has a fleet of tens of 1000’s of combustion-engine vans making up its huge delivery operation, has ordered 100,000 electric vans from EV startup Rivian (which it’s also closely invested in) and is planning on shopping for EVs from Stellantis as effectively.