Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - April 2021 - 12

Startup targets
MEDIUM-DUTY

EVs

by Bill Visnic

lectric-vehicle (EV) startups no longer are a phenomenon
- and the subset of startups focused just on EV pickup
trucks seems to add a new player nearly every quarter. The
business plan for most is predicated on acting, in varying
degrees, as integrators of existing components, particularly for highly
engineered systems such as batteries and traction motors.
Mark Hanchett's vision for Atlis Motors is different, although it's
been around since the birth of automotive: He intends to do it all. The
CEO and founder of Atlis isn't content to develop and manufacture
Atlis' own NCM (nickel-manganese-cobalt) lithium-ion batteries and
traction motors. Atlis even plans to set up its own charging network.
The DC fast-charging arrangement will enable full recharging of an
Atlis pickup's largest battery pack in around 15 minutes, he claims.
" We're making our own motors. We're making our own controllers.
We're designing our own gearboxes, " confirmed Hanchett in a recent
interview with Truck & Off-Highway Engineering. He concedes it isn't
logical or cost-effective to engineer safety-critical or commodity
items such as airbags, glass, and switchgear and seats; Atlis will purchase those parts.
But batteries, motors, electronics, charging - that's a lot to develop, particularly with the knowledge there is so much off-the-shelf
engineering readily available. Hanchett is unfazed.
" To be successful in this space, you have to own the largest-cost
item that goes into any application that you're developing, whether
it's vehicles, energy storage, charging systems, whatever that is. If
you don't own that cost, you don't own the end value of whatever it
is you're building, " he insists.
12 April 2021

The Atlis XT pickup is targeting the Class 2b to Class 3-4 market,
segments known EV pickup makers have yet to stake out.

Unoccupied territory
It's first important to understand the market Atlis plans
to address with its XT pickup and the XP skateboardtype architecture intended to underpin all Atlis models. Like much of the pickup market, it's a segmentstraddling proposition.
" Atlis' real focus is what we call a Class 2B up to a
Class 6, " said Hanchett. " Initially we're doing Class 2B
to a Class 3/Class 4, technically Class 4 by gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR). That's our initial focus.
That's what we're chasing after.
But Atlis won't turn down consumer buyers, who
often operate in the commercial space even if it's not
technically their job function. " The sweet spot's really
going to be in a Class 3, Class 4 market area. That's
where we find no one else is chasing that particular
market position, " Hanchett said. " That's where we see
actual growth in the existing market and that's where
we see us coming out and making a dent. "
That includes a dent into diesel, which dominates
the medium-duty pickup and chassis-cab segments.
" Atlis wants to own everything that is 'work,' " he said.
" The future of Atlis is, if you own a construction company, every vehicle and piece of equipment that you
operate is one day powered by that Atlis ecosystem.
" If you're a fleet company, or a construction company
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING

ALL IMAGES: ATLIS MOTORS

Atlis Motors purpose-engineers
nearly all the vital components
for an electric pickup and
platform capable of spanning
several market segments.

Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - April 2021

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