Lightning eMotors Inc (ZEVY)

[WeTheMarket]

Colorado company to electrify GM shuttles, vans and work trucks
The Colorado company is a leader in converting medium-duty buses, vans and work trucks in battery electric versions.
Feb 3, 2022 Updated Feb 3, 2022, 3:32pm MST
By Greg Avery – Senior Reporter, Denver Business Journal
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2022/02/03/lightning-emotors-partners-gm-on-electric-vehicles.html

A Colorado electric vehicle company on Thursday became the first to strike a deal to turn GM commercial shuttle buses, cargo vans and work trucks into electric versions of the medium-duty vehicles.

Lightning eMotors (NYSE: ZEV), based in Loveland, has contracted to have hundreds of GM chassis delivered that it will outfit with electric vehicle drivetrains and batteries before they’re finished by other companies as school buses, ambulances, delivery vans, tow trucks and similar vehicles.

Buying chassis directly from Detroit-based GM adds a third automaker chassis that Lightning eMotors outfits to become electric vehicles, building on work it does converting utility vehicles built on Ford and Isuzu chassis.

“This was a big part of solving the chassis shortage we have been working through,” said Tim Reeser, founder and CEO of Lightning eMotors in an interview Thursday.

Lightning eMotors' chassis deal is the first for electric vehicle conversion and sales, the company said, but it's not exclusive to Lightning eMotors.

The company’s first order of 250 chassis from GM has been made, with delivery and the electric vehicle assembly using the chassis expected to start in the second half of the year, Reeser said.

Lightning eMotors' growth slowed last year compared to earlier expectations because chassis had grown increasingly scarce amid auto-industry supply chain disruptions.

The company has designed and arranged the manufacture of its own chassis for electric commercial utility vehicles, but that project isn’t finished. Lightning eMotors expects to begin working with its own chassis in the fourth quarter of this year.

The company went public last year as interest in electric commercial vehicles boomed and it became a leader in converting medium-duty buses, vans and work trucks in battery electric versions.

Lightning eMotors works with the specialty manufacturers that design, assemble and sell such vehicles, which for decades have been built to run on fossil fuel-burning internal combustion engines.

Demand among buyers to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions has led to a boom in demand for electric versions.

Lightning eMotors has, in the past couple years, signed deals to work with vehicle producers such as Ekhart, Indiana-based Forest River Inc. and Winter Garden, Florida-based ABC Motorcoach, and with fleet owners such as Denver-based rental firm Fluid Truck, DHL Express delivery service and IKEA.

It’s an industry of smaller volumes and more intense vehicle customization than the mass market for consumer cars and trucks.

Buying chassis directly from GM and working with the automaker has more benefits than just adding work, Reeser said.

“It goes much faster and is a more elegant design when we can work directly with the manufacturer,” he said.

Commercial vehicles and their powertrains are complex, made of thousands of unique components and requiring years of software development and testing, Reeser said. Both Lightning eMotors and GM have a lot of experience in those areas.

GM sells between 7,000 and 10,000 chassis for medium-duty vans and shuttles annually, Reeser said. Lightning eMotors projects that by 2025, between 3,000 and 4,000 of those will be acquired by the company for electric drivetrain installation.

A similar volume of chassis for work trucks is produced by GM each year and Reeser’s company aims to electrify a similar percentage of that chassis class, too, he said.

Lightning eMotors leased a large Loveland manufacturing campus last year and has been expanding its production there as its work in electric vehicles grows.

Some of the work on GM chassis may take place outside of Loveland. For certain kinds of vehicles, it likely will make sense to install electric drivetrains at other companies' manufacturing plants.

The company today employs about 220 people and has about 100 positions it’s hiring to fill.