EV startup Bollinger drops pickups to focus on commercial trucks

Jan 14 (Reuters) – Startup electric vehicle company Bollinger Motors said on Friday that it was postponing development of electric pickups for consumers to focus on commercial trucks amid soaring demand from companies seeking to electrify their fleets.

Chief Executive Robert Bollinger told Reuters that over the course of 2021 the company’s focus and resources had shifted almost entirely to developing medium-duty commercial electric trucks and away from the pickup trucks that had been the Detroit-based startup’s initial focus.

“It’s really just a matter of how many companies are coming to us and asking for pilot programs and asking to get their hands on something,” Bollinger said. “Going commercial will allow us to keep hiring people, develop our technology and work with suppliers.”

Bollinger said the startup will showcase the electric platforms for its medium-duty trucks in March and will likely release some customer names this year.

A number of electric startups and traditional automakers are racing to bring electric vans and trucks to market, as some states and a growing number of countries are mandating a shift away from fossil-fuel vehicles to zero-emission electric models.

The startup has been working for around five years on its consumer pickup truck models, but Bollinger said getting them to production would require more money and time that the company needs to devote now to commercial vehicles instead.

“It was a hard decision, but very necessary,” Bollinger said.

Reporting by Nick Carey; Editing by Lisa Shumaker

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.