Bollinger B2 Chassis Cab Is A Fleet Ready Electric Heavy Duty Truck
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Michigan-based electric vehicle startup Bollinger has released a chassis cab variant of the Bollinger B2 electric utility vehicle, which it says will offer significant cost of ownership savings over a comparable internal combustion engine chassis cab truck.
The Bollinger B2 chassis cab is available in rear-wheel drive, dual rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive variants. The rear-wheel-drive and dual rear-wheel-drive models have a maximum payload of 7,500 lbs, while the AWD model has a payload of 5,000 lbs. All versions have an estimated range of 200+ miles a maximum torque output of 850 pound-feet.
Bollinger chassis cab trucks come “upfitter and aftermarket ready,” and can be used as the basis for municipal fleet trucks, bucket trucks, box delivery trucks, tow trucks and even military service vehicles. The company says the trucks offer a ten-year cost of ownership savings of $27,060 over a comparable ICE chassis cab, factoring in a $12,400 battery replacement, annual electricity costs, maintenance and insurance. Pricing starts at $70,000 for the single rear-wheel-drive model and extends to $100,000 for the AWD model.
“Commercial fleets will be able to reduce their overall cost of operation while buying a truck designed, engineered, and built in the USA,” Bollinger says on its website. “The B2CC is an ideal option for municipalities, parks services, emergency response vehicles, airports, construction, landscaping, electricians, plumbers, security, non-tactical military, and more.”
The BrightDrop EV600 electric delivery van from General Motors will serve a similar purpose as the Bollinger B2 chassis cab, however it has more limited potential uses, as it has so far only been shown in a van body style. While it has yet to present an electric chassis cab truck, GM will likely be keeping a close eye on EVs like this as it prepares to release more battery-powered trucks and SUVs between now and 2025.
Automakers will also be eager to introduce more battery-powered fleet vehicles as the Biden Administration begins to enact its plan to replace the entire federal vehicle fleet with EVs, a move that could cost upwards of $20 billion. The federal vehicle fleet currently consists of over 645,000 vehicles, just 3,215 of which are battery-powered.
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“estimated (theoretical) range of 200+ miles”, can we just get one out on the street and find out or are these just vaporware at this point?
“GM will likely be keeping a close eye on EVs like”, if gm (GM)? were to release a truck, whether it be a commercial or consumer with this range everyone would be 💩 all over them!
Right Sam?
Bollinger, Lordstown, Nikola. Why buy this unproven BEV truck from a start-up company with no experience when GM will have a ‘real’ BEV truck shortly? With a dealer network, warranty, parts availability, ect.. I’ll wait!
The biggest problem here is who is going to upfit these things? It’s not like you can just drop a dump bed for a Chevy 4500 on this thing, it has to be re-engineered to fit, and the hydraulic system totally redesigned since you don’t have a traditional PTO. No one is going to engineer products for this to sell 2.
I would also point out that with 200 miles max range, down time waiting on a charge is a real consideration that would need to be factored into the total cost of ownership.
The downtime waiting on a charge should typically be over night on the yard of the delivery company doing last mile delivery by day with a fleet of vans and all of them returning after a day’s work.
Parcel delivery is a start-stop business where electric cars provide big advantages over an ICE powered on, which puts the driver before the choice of stopping and restarting the engine at every delivery. The electric motor turns only when driving and does not need to be started before driving.
A sheep in wolf’s clothing. Great for gender confused people to get their overpriced soy milk home from whole foods, but not for normal people who need to get the milk home from Walmart.
Is that 200 miles with or without a load? Just like an ICE truck when it’s working the mpg decreases, the big difference is the ICE pulls into one of the 25 nearby gas stations and 10 minutes later it’s back to work. The EV truck needs to find a recharging station somewhere and 6 hrs later returns to the shop fully charged and the driver goes home to a cold supper and very upset spouse. EVs have a long row to hoe before they can be taken seriously.
I’m sure it’s 200 miles with no load and in bare chassis cab form. Add in a giant brick behind the cab that double the coefficient of drag, adds a pile of weight, and requires auxiliary power to run and it’s going to be like 100-150 miles.
Additionally, the advertised 850 ft-lbs is not that impressive. All of the electric vehicles have been advertising torque at the rear wheel. A Duramax has more torque than that at the flywheel, and would make well over 10,000 ft-lbs at the rear wheel. 850 ft-lbs at the wheel is absolutely nothing, unless they are using a different method to measure the torque.
The other funny thing I noticed on their site is the dual rear wheel option doesn’t even increase the payload. What’s the point??
Just looking at the wheels, regardless of everything else, and it’s pretty apparent they don’t understand the commercial market. It also looks like they are no where near production, they don’t even have a single rendering on their website of their interior on any of their vehicles.
So for giggles I went to their web site. The most useful thing I saw was definitions of truck class. Now I know what the difference is from class 4/5/6. Everything else is puffery. It is a nice feel good story. I doubt they will ever produce a truck though.