Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 25
ORIGINAL
EQUIPMENT
Bollinger's electric truck enters design validation phase
Potential fleet customers had their first
hands-on time with " fully productionintent "
Bollinger B4 all-electric Class 4
chassis cab trucks during a recent rideand-drive
event. " All of the components,
all of the wiring, all of the software
and the manner in which the truck
is being manufactured is productionintent, "
Robert Bollinger, CEO and
founder of Bollinger Motors, said in an
interview with Truck & Off-Highway
Engineering.
The Oak Park, Michigan-based electric
truck manufacturer chose the Mcity
Test Facility, a 32-acre site on the
University of Michigan's North Campus
in Ann Arbor, for the B4 test drive.
Potential customers, Bollinger Motors
employees and media attended the
event that unfolded in waves over 10
days in September 2023. " Our manufacturing
partner, Roush Industries, has
produced 20 design-verification B4
vehicles. Five of the vehicles are for
marketing purposes and 15 will be used
for testing, " Bollinger said, adding that
the B4 is slated to enter full production
in the second quarter of 2024.
Commercial-vehicle path
Founded in 2015, the start-up company
is targeting the design and development
of Class 3-6 electric vehicles. The
initial focus was on off-road-capable
Class 3 vehicles (the B1 SUV and B2
truck) for consumers. " If you go back to
the B1 days, we were developing a crazy-cool,
complicated SUV that could do
everything. That work was paused in
early 2020 to concentrate on commercial
vehicles, " Bollinger said.
" The thing with the B4 and our commercial-vehicle
path is we went straight
to the fleets first and listened to them.
And now we're giving commercial-vehicle
customers a simplified, non-complicated
electrified version of what they're
already used to driving, so they can easily
adapt and start taking CO2
vehicle
emissions out of the air, " Bollinger said.
With a GVWR of 15,500 lbs. (7,030
" When you drive the B4, it's a smooth ride
with great acceleration and an amazing turning
radius. It's incredible, " said Bollinger Motors'
Robert Bollinger.
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
kg), the B4 has a payload of 7,100 lbs.
(3,220 kg). For the ride-and-drive program
at Mcity, the B4 vehicles purposefully
carried half of the payload capacity.
" At the beginning of a [work] day,
the truck is at full payload. And at the
end of the day, the truck is empty of
payload. So that's why we're testing at
50% payload, " Bollinger said.
The B4's frame height is 30 inches
(762 mm), but the 40-inch (1,016-mm)
frame-rail width is a significant uptick
from the 34-inch (864-mm) industry
The Bollinger B4 all-electric Class 4 chassis cab had its ride-and-drive
debut for customers and media at the Mcity proving ground.
standard. The decision to go with a larger
frame-rail width was supported by
Kent Harrison, the former Ford Motor
Company chief platform engineer for
commercial vehicles and trucks, whom
Bollinger Motors hired in March 2022.
A 40-in width for frame rails enabled
the battery pack and high-voltage wiring
harnesses to be packaged inside the
rails, according to Harrison. " The inhouse-developed
frame rail is 7-millimeter-thick
[0.275-in] metal in a
C-channel, so if a vehicle impacts the
rail, it's not going to bend. That's a
good safety feature for the battery
pack, " Harrison said. The frame rail will
be fabricated by Metalsa.
ONE battery pack
The battery pack for the B4 is a different
chemistry than what was originally
planned. " We were actually developing a
lithium-ion battery pack in-house, but
when Kent Harrison came onboard as our
chief product officer, he said: 'Let's talk
with battery providers because it's all
about speed-to-market,' " Bollinger said.
Bollinger Motors opted for Our Next
Energy's (ONE) Aries lithium iron phosphate
(LFP) battery pack, which is
available in two sizes: 79 kWh and 62
kWh. Bollinger will offer customers a
choice of batteries in the B4: a 79-kWh
single pack, or two 79-kWh packs for a
total of 158 kWh.
December 2023 25
FROM TOP: BOLLINGER MOTORS; SAE/KAMI BUCHHOLZ
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - INTRO1
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - SPONSOR1
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - CVR1
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - CVR2
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 1
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 2
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 3
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 4
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 5
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 6
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 7
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 8
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 9
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 10
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 11
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 12
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 13
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 14
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 15
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 16
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 17
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 18
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 19
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 20
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 21
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 22
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 23
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 24
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 25
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 26
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 27
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 28
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 29
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 30
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 31
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 32
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - CVR3
Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - CVR4
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