Last year, I was offered a weird opportunity. I got to ride over to Michigan to drive the prototype Class 4 commercial trucks of Bollinger Motors, a company that originally wanted to make sweet electric off-roaders before shelving them. The company had its doubters, but Bollinger beat everyone’s expectations as it just put the B4 into production. You’re going to see these trucks soon, so let’s take a look.
This news comes to us from Automotive News. According to the publication, Bollinger is sitting on orders for at least 240 of its all-electric B4 commercial trucks, valued at around $35 million. On September 16, the very first production truck began to make its way down the Roush Flexible Assembly line in Livonia, Michigan.
This is exciting news! It seems so many startup companies make ambitious promises, just to never deliver their product. Bollinger Motors, majority owned by Mullen Automotive (a “Southern California based company that owns and partners with several synergistic businesses, all working towards the same goal of creating clean and scalable electric vehicles and energy solutions”), was feared to be another one of those names. Now, slowly, the company is proving it has some bite to match its bark.
The Rollercoaster Of Bollinger
If you haven’t been following this story, I’ll give you a recap of why people thought these were going to be vaporware.
Robert Bollinger founded Bollinger Motors in Hobart, New York nine years ago. At the time, Bollinger had ambitious plans, stating: “Trucks have had the same design flaws for a hundred years and someone needs to do something about it.” How ambitious are we talking about, here? Bollinger said he was going to build the “world’s first all-electric on- and off-road sport utility truck.”
(Editor’s Note: I feel like I should mention, in the interests of full disclosure, Bollinger once wanted me to sign some legal documents because they were having a patent dispute with rival EV truck maker Canoo over front beds and tailgates, something I had drawn and written about and published in 2013, long before the first Bollinger came out with a similar setup in 2017. If I recall correctly, Bollinger wanted to stop Canoo from getting a patent, citing my posts as prior art or something. It’s all documented here. – JT)
Now, keep in mind that this was before today’s popular electric trucks and SUVs hit the road, so this statement had impact. So, Bollinger announced an electric SUV and an electric pickup truck; from my B4 commercial truck first drive:
Bollinger’s truck ideas rose from a need. See, Bollinger’s enjoyed a colorful career working for Manhattan ad agencies before pivoting to an organic hair and skincare company then finally landing at co-founding a grass-fed cattle farm. While running the farm, Bollinger felt that there really wasn’t a truck out there that was both a practical farm vehicle and a fun off-road toy. This motivated Bollinger to fulfill a lifelong dream and he created Bollinger Motors with the idea of creating a heavy-duty Sport Utility Truck that got work done during the week and had fun on the weekends.
In 2018, the company moved to Ferndale, Michigan, to grow its team and take advantage of proximity near automotive suppliers, engineering talent, and potential manufacturing partners. A year later, Bollinger moved again to Oak Park, Michigan. Bollinger had been working on the B1 SUV and B2 Pickup for years. Development started with a team of engineers who lived with each other in a bunkhouse before the truck was first unveiled in 2017. Bollinger then missed its delivery targets multiple times as development continued. The company also briefly flirted with a panel van concept and chassis cabs.
Bollinger disappointed waiting fans in 2022 when it canned the B1 and B2. Then, it was revealed that Bollinger had been quietly working on a commercial truck platform, and large fleet operators were interested in it. The company already had most of its workers aiding in the development of the commercial truck, so shelving the B1 and B2 was even easier.
Robert Bollinger, who has since stepped down as CEO, says he’s not giving up on his ultimate electric pickup truck dream, but for now the company is going to chase what makes the most sense. Still, Bollinger already effectively killed two vehicles, so some folks understandably had little confidence that the commercial trucks would hit the road.
The B4 Is A Ton Of Fun
One of the biggest differences between the old off-roader project and this commercial truck project was a change in design philosophy. The B1 and B2 were supposed to be designed and built from a blank sheet, using as many bespoke components as possible.
The B4 commercial trucks are the exact opposite. Bollinger’s engineers told me that they partnered with as many suppliers as possible to reduce inventions down to the bare minimum. Everything from the truck’s cab to its battery comes from an army of suppliers, and the trucks are assembled right there in Michigan by Roush.
Before you think that cab comes from Isuzu, it doesn’t. It actually comes from a manufacturer in China because, as you could guess, no big name manufacturer was willing to sell a cab to a potential competitor. At any rate, Bollinger isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, but fill a hole in the market for a Class 4 electric commercial truck that offers up good dynamics and low running costs.
For those of you not obsessed with trucks, those classes refer to the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating, or your truck plus what it’s hauling in its cab and box. A Class 1 truck is under 6,000 pounds like a Chevy Colorado or Toyota Tacoma while a Class 8 goes up to and beyond 80,000 pounds like a Tesla Semi or a Freightliner Cascadia. Class 4 trucks are between 14,001 pounds and 16,000 pounds.
Driving one is a total ball, from my first drive:
The Bollinger B4 surprised me in how much it didn’t drive like a commercial truck. The Mcity proving ground was too small for me to really find the limits of the Bollinger trucks, but I got to do things with those trucks that I’d never try with my bus or any of the other trucks I’ve driven.
Out of the gate, I decided to punch the accelerator. The B4 moves like any other EV. It takes off with a satisfying kick of torque and the electric motor gets the speedometer rising way faster than you’d expect a commercial vehicle to go. I’m sure you’ve gotten stuck behind garbage trucks and the like at stoplights. Well, the B4 accelerates fast enough that it could be a garbage truck that is faster than you are between stoplights. The B4 is not “fast,” as in, it’s not going to pull your face’s skin back, but it’ll make a comparable diesel look like it’s sitting still. It’s fast enough that Bollinger tells me some customers want a power limiter so that drivers don’t have too much fun.
That quick dose of power is supported with surprisingly good handling. See, “handling” and “delivery truck” don’t tend to jive well. Try to go full lock and full throttle in a regular truck and you might have a bad day. Bollinger’s trucks have their center of gravity so low that the engineers actually encouraged going full lock while hard on the throttle. There was tons of body roll, sure, but the truck felt planted even when I was at full lock and pushing the truck harder and harder. The tires gave up traction long before the truck felt unstable.
Bollinger’s engineers even convinced me to do a slalom. I giggled all of the way through because come on, I was driving this like I would a Mazda Miata or a Saturn Sky, but this was a freaking box truck!
A lot of the reason the B4 drove so well comes down to the engineering. Yes, Bollinger used as many existing parts as possible, but some real thought was put into implementing them.
For example, Bollinger says its frame rails are 40 inches wide, compared to about 32 inches or so found in most ICE Class 4 trucks. Doing this allowed the company to put the battery and drive system in the middle of the frame rails and down low, close to the ground. The result is that the vast majority of the trucks’ base weight is hugging the road, which you can’t say about the typical ICE Class 4.
They Actually Did It
Bollinger also came pretty much on target with the specs as they were presented during the drive event. These trucks have a GVWR of 15,500 pounds, or down about 500 pounds from the ICE competition. The engineers told me the target was closer to 600 pounds down from the competition, so they did better than expected. The production truck’s payload is an equally healthy 7,325 pounds.
Our Next Energy (ONE) in Novi, Michigan provides battery power through its scalable Aries LFP system. The B4 wears two 79 kWh Aries LFP packs, which adds up to 158 kWh of power and 800 volts.
Bollinger quotes a range estimate of 185 miles, but that may vary wildly in either direction depending on how the fleet operator upfits and operates the truck. Topping up that battery from dead takes 9 hours on a Level 2 charger or 1.5 hours on a DC fast charge.
Bollinger says the choice to go with Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) chemistry offered numerous benefits. ONE says its batteries can survive 5,000 charge cycles and they shouldn’t see accelerated degradation from repeated full charges to 100 percent. Also, Bollinger says LFP is less likely to catch fire.
The prototype trucks were powered by a Dana e-Axle good for 363 HP and 702 lb-ft torque. These trucks were already quick, probably even faster than some of the slower cars on the market today. Yet, as Automotive News writes, the production trucks are pumping out 400 HP. So, the fun I had shouldn’t have gone anywhere.
Other specs remain great as well from the 44 feet of turning circle to the short 158 inches of wheelbase. The 30- HP Terzo e-PTO even sticks around, offering businesses even more practicality. The trucks are also thoroughly modern with a forward collision warning system, lane departure warning, and a warning system to hopefully keep you from running over cyclists and pedestrians.
LaFontaine Automotive Group in Detroit will sell and service the $158,758 B4 and the first trucks are expected to reach the dealer group next month. Qualifying customers can get up to a $40,000 tax credit per vehicle and California customers can see a credit of up to $60,000. Roush and Bollinger expect to build a truck a day at first to ensure quality is right. Then, production will eventually ramp up. Bollinger says Roush has the capacity to build 5,000 B4s a year.
Once the B4 line is fully up and running, Bollinger wants to go bigger and more powerful. Next on its list is putting a Class 5 electric truck into production. For now, it’s just awesome to hear that the company actually pulled through on the B4. So, if you’re at a light next to a silent box truck, it might just be a Bollinger.
(Images: Author, unless otherwise noted.)
