EXCLUSIVE! Meet the Bollinger Trucks That Can Off-Road Like a Jeep and Haul Heavy

hey guys I have a tearful truck

exclusive for you an inside look at the

Bollinger electric truck design and

production facility here in the Detroit

Michigan area they're working on two

production level prototypes the

four-door SUV the b1 and the four-door

pickup truck

the b2

in this video I'll show you all the

details about the new production

prototypes I'm gonna speak to the CEO

Robert Bollinger some of the engineers

and actually go for a ride and the

prototype the two-door truck but I think

you're looking at here is kind of the

future of the heavy-duty truck because

let me show you the pickup right here be

- don't look at SUV quite yet so here it

is the b2 pickup truck this is a

production based prototype and this is

an active production space the guys are

working around the clock almost to get

these done for September unveiling and

the size of the truck is I think with

the interesting part let me show you so

it's sitting here on a jig and the

wheelbase on the pickup truck is

actually 20 inches longer when you

compare it to the four-door SUV and it

reminds me a little bit of the Jeep

gladiator but the gladiator is more of a

midsize truck what this is is a

full-size truck because it's much wider

and I'll show you in the bed right here

between the wheel wells in the bed it's

about 49 inches so you can put a 4x8

plywood or sheet of plywood in the bed

and it will have a mid gate and here's

how it will work as you can see the

entire structure is aluminum and this is

the C pillar and everything from the

c-pillar forward is shared with a

four-door SUV of course this is a pickup

truck much longer wheelbase and it's

gonna have a mid gate very similar

concept to the Chevy Avalanche but the

glass partition will be here and it'll

actually fold open fold up like on the

SUV and the metal mid gate will fall

down and it will lay down in line with

this bed partition here so it's gonna

make a flat floor where you can load

cargo material 4x8 pieces of plywood

anything you want so that's a pretty

neat design it's also a six foot long

bed not like a short five foot bed so

you can put six foot long items in here

or you can fold the mid gate

and put much longer items inside the

truck the battery is basically mounted

into the floor of the vehicle between

the two axles it's a dual motor setup

one electric motor in the front and one

in the rear

a lots happened we started right away on

the next level prototypes the four-door

version of the b1 and the four-door b2

let's quickly walk around this two-door

sure and then just kind of go inside and

kind of show where you guys are going

next okay great talk to me about style

first of all okay well I studied

industrial design wanted to be a card

designer and a car guy whatever so a lot

of people when they see they're like oh

an industrial designer worked on that

because it's very like you know it's not

car styling it's it's more like form

follows function all those you know you

know catchphrases people use but

basically what it is is that it's the

look of it is what I like and what I've

always liked always like classic Broncos

classic you know internationals and

stuff like that so it was basically I

would wanted a vehicle that would be

everlasting and have a classic style and

never get old also we wanted flat panels

because we wanted to bend the metal

ourselves so we wanted to be able to

really build the whole truck ourselves

with our own hands it was hard to make

it so simple and keep it like a simple

form to the whole overall thing because

it can get out of control easily and you

start adding a lot of stuff to it

our next prototypes that you'll see

inside carry over almost all of the

styling cues same form we've updated a

few little things here and there but

inside all the components are brand new

so we have updated motors updated

inverters we can tell you about that

inside but basically the vehicles have

the same franck space the front space is

actually little bit bigger on the next

prototypes we saw the pass through of

course that we got to put a patent on

and so on the Ford or you can hold 13

foot boards through the middle with the

with the gates closed which is kind of

longer than pickup trucks anyway right

and then on the pickup truck version or

you can hold 16 foot boards with the

gates closed and then of course with the

gate tailgate down you can 20 feet 24

feet whatever so it's basic that has

crazy cool amazing storage capabilities

on the top and then it has amazing

off-road you know capabilities that were

built into it with the portal gear hubs

and stuff like that that are also

carried into the next prototypes so

that's our DNA as our DNA is crazy good

off-road capability crazy good store

capability class three truck so if this

comes in at five thousand pounds I can

hold five thousand pounds which you know

no other Eevee can do obviously and no

Eevee coming out it can do so it's

amazing so it'll be the only class three

electric vehicle out there

overall the chastened design will remain

mostly the same but there is one visual

difference that you will notice the

prototype the two-door has a radiator

outlet on the side here in the fender

the new one has an outlet on the top and

a big inland in the front around the

headlights and that was done for

additional cooling and also the bigger

battery pack that's gonna go into

production b1 and b2 trucks just imagine

a full-size truck with heavy-duty

payload capability that has up to 20

inches of ground clearance

four-wheel drive with a high low

transfer case front and rear locking

differentials front and rear

disconnecting sway bars and a

self-levelling suspension Boulder says

there will be a provision for a winch

this in fact could be an electric Ram

Power Wagon killer our in wheel geared

hub this is completely designed in-house

by myself and Carl

it's a 4.34 of inch center distance

which gives you that much extra ground

clearance as well as a 194 to 1 gear

reduction ratio so you'll get extra

torque multiplication everything

upstream of that is a lot lighter

because of that so this is the the gear

set here it's a ACMA 12 quality ground

helical reduction it's a 2 inch face

with 6 pitch gear you know 23 pressure

angle pretty standard dimensions and

this will handle all the shock loading

from it's wheel slip and rock crawling

to yanking stumps so we instrumented the

all four wheels with what's called wheel

force transducers and that senses force

torque and acceleration and speed in six

directions well force and torque in six

directions yeah thanks so much Andre the

suspension is a unique hydraulic design

and it's height adjustable it's meant to

ride at the 15 inches of ground

clearance

normally for example on a highway but

you can also lower it to a 10 inch

ground clearance level for entry and

egress and loading or lifted off-road to

20 inches of ground clearance

so there's 10 inches of range on this

suspension and of course I want to drive

it offroad but that'll have to wait

until a little bit later combined power

output according to Bollinger is 614

horsepower there is a lot of juice there

it's a single gear but there is a high

and low range so basically you could

have high forward low forward high

reverse and low reverse so really four

settings for the transmission it's an

oval drive system so it's reacting to

the traction capability of the vehicle

and on the pickup truck up to five

thousand pounds of payload capability

and around 7,500 pounds of maximum

towing so the towing number is not very

high but the payload is where it's at as

far as Bollinger is concerned but what

about towing what are some of the

challenging because 7,500 it's kind of

like a midsize truck level of currently

towing

yeah what are some of the challenges

there the main thing is is cooling so

with an electric powertrain is you're

generating heat in the batteries and in

the motors and the inverters and there's

a sort of a time limit of when you get

to saturation on the temperature so that

really determines what your continuous

power is and continues power is you know

if you're towing up you know i-70 out of

Denver in you're pulling forever and

ever and ever you're just gonna get into

continuous power anything like short

acceleration runs that's peak power so

that that you know thermal doesn't

necessarily come into it but you

sustained almost like a dyno pull yeah

you know we were just pull pull pull

that becomes your limiting factor how

much can you how much heat can you get

out of the system

and that's the balance of how much

weight can you pull how much power do

you need in order to pull that and then

keeping it cool the front rear bumper

design may change a little bit on the

production units but it's pretty neat

the hitch is actually hidden behind the

license plate on this truck and it is

wired for a seven pin connector so it's

pretty standard stuff 2 inch receiver

here this is the black box this is

actually the casing for the battery for

the bollinger truck and it's a hundred

and twenty kilowatt hours and bollinger

states that it would give the truck and

the SUV about 200 miles of range it's

not a lot of range because right now the

ribbing r1c with the biggest battery

option which is 180 kilowatt hours is

claiming 400 miles of range which is

twice of the bollinger but let's talk to

the expert and see exactly what the

charging times are at how this battery

works in the vehicle this particular

variant is kind of a composite some

carbon fiber included here to kind of

keep the weight down okay and then we

have multiple cooling plates as you can

tell running this way

that's liquid cooled yeah it'll bring

you water glycol coolant flowing through

the packs okay and then we put the

battery modules on top of the cooling

plates to kind of wick heat away that's

the bottom that's right that's right

yeah and to recharge actually our

vehicles really well equipped in terms

of options so there's an included high

powered charger that also is an inverter

so you can put power in when you're

charging or you can take power out like

if you want to be sort of out in a

remote wilderness setting you can power

tools you can get power tool power from

the from the vehicle you know sort of a

lot of small power inside the vehicle

for like USB chargers phone chargers

things like that even though it's a

fairly simplistic vehicle there's not a

lot of screens and you know visible

technology and the

having like under the hood you know

controlling the battery controlling the

electric motors the gearbox and even

sort of the translation of like operator

command from like excel pedal and brake

pedal so like what torque gets delivered

to the wheels this is a pretty modern

setup and so we actually have two

vehicle controllers that are identical

and redundant and in part for safety if

one would would fail the other would

detect it and we can take the

appropriate actions and here there's the

four-door b1 SUV and it's neat to see it

in the state actually because you can

see some of the components on the inside

so there is like I said electric motor

in the rear and one in the front and

here in the rear you can see kind of

inboard brake solution with the brake

caliper and the rotor and the suspension

is gonna be hanging out here so you do

have some wheel articulation because the

Bollinger SUV in truck like Robert said

are meant to be an off-road vehicle as

well very capable to get you to places

off the beaten path and behind me it's

kind of a chart which kind of looks like

Lego set instruction to me there's the

main chassis and Tunnel then you have

some additional components then the main

body frame etc etc etc and at the very

end of course you get a four-door SUV

guys here's the front electric motor

assembly it's pretty neat so the

electric motor itself is right here

that's a little bit over 300 horsepower

just right here it's very compact then

you have some gear train to connect it

to a high-low basically a transfer case

which is here then it goes to the

differential which is here it's

selectable locking differential and the

whole unit attaches to the chassis using

several bolts on both sides and some

other connections but the inboard brakes

are actually connected to the

differential and there's like a rubber

isolator in the middle so the whole unit

can be lowered and lifted in and this

drive unit weighs about 300 pounds all

together in the front and about the same

in the rear

it's pretty amazing how compact this is

so I'm here at the pretty cool moment

because they're just about to marry the

battery to the Ford or SUV chassis

itself and there's a lot of guys over

there trying to make it just right

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

[Applause]

it's a fully road-legal vehicle right so

how does a because you don't have

provisions for like a airbag system

alright how does that work out yeah so

we've been very honest from the front

from the very beginning we don't have

airbags class three vehicles you can

choose to go down the air bag safety

route or the seatbelt safety route so

you still have regulations for seatbelt

safety so we still have to do the crash

test with the with the cab if you will

and then we're doing a whole due

diligence list of safety protocols

simulated crash testing side pole front

all that kind of stuff for occupant

safety battery safety is a big thing too

so basically our trucks even though they

will fully be road legal as a class 3

vehicle they're gonna have a lot more

safety features to them then the federal

government requires the basically the

class 3 for the class 3 yeah ok so what

does it mean to be a class 3

classification truck well it's based on

the gross vehicle weight rating GVWR of

10001 pounds and with that weight class

certain things change like the safety

requirements kind of starting from the

front and rear there's a crash structure

that bolts on to the chassis so if you

were to hit say a row you know run into

a frontal barrier the that crash

structure is is engineered to reduce the

impact to the driver so there's a what's

called a VPI pulse and that's what the

the occupant actually feels so we do

most of our work with that and then the

seat belt does the rest of it I'm just

over 6 - and I'm sitting here in the

driver seat and there's plenty of space

I got a lot of legroom Headroom is also

plentiful and the same will be true with

the production versions of the truck but

what catches my eye the most is the

simplicity of the Interior and actually

the column shifter it's just basically

classic design but with modern

technology behind it I really like that

it's almost like a restomod where you

have a classic body but modern

powertrain I really love this idea

the windows are sliding design and

there's certain that lock to win

in a certain position front and rear so

we have options on how you want to air

out the vehicle while moving

I asked to drive the B one concept truck

but it's one of a kind concept vehicle

with many quirks and it wasn't in the

cards once Robert got it on the road I

was still able to get a quick first

impression it was like riding in the

conventional a CV or truck it has lots

of visibility lots of interior space and

a comfy suspension yes sir the whole

design of the whole vehicle inside it

out resolved supposed to be one language

and one thought so the interiors just is

clean and minimal as the outside so we

have round gauges we have flat panels

that you can unscrew yourself and put in

and you say you want to put in extra

switches for extra lights that you have

on it you can do that the left and right

or a mirror of each other so it's ready

for right-hand drive we got the air vent

thing on top here which is basically out

of necessity because we couldn't fit the

transfer box inside and because we

wanted to keep it clean and simple and

not bunch it out so we invented these so

we call machine guns but so it's

defroster vent beautiful and then you

can turn it completely off by turning it

inside too we still have the same thing

inside on the next vehicles with the

glass opening yeah

glass opening the tailgate and on the

new ones this we have a easier just

dismantle system if you will for the

rear glass so again all the glass would

come off on this prototype the front

windshield did not come off but on the

new ones they do

[Music]

[Music]

what's next is we will reveal the four

doors in September and then we'll have a

price point and then you'll be able to

go on our website and put a deposit in

make an actual pre-order and we still

have to announce that price point so

it's a whole big thing unto itself so

it's it's not a cheap vehicle you know

has six gearboxes 120 kilowatt hour pack

it's a lot going into this truck there

is no truck for sale currently but

there's ravine you know Tesla is talking

about it

there's Atlas there's several other

companies this year competitor are you

targeting somebody or just kind of doing

your own thing how does that work right

well even that f150 had something out

the other day train yeah so I don't know

where that's at in development but we

always knew there's gonna be an electric

f-150 I always knew there'd be other

things out there maybe GM is doing

something yeah so from the very

beginning we just said let's just do our

own thing because we can't I don't want

to compete against a Ford f-150 that's

not our thing so we're gonna have our

own electric pickup truck and be in that

segment but ours will just be a good

different completely different kind of

animal will have a different target

audience I believe so I think ours will

be our trucks we'll just with the 15

inch ground clearance alone it'll be

like that's almost twice of what's

anything on the road right now so I

think we're a much better truck out of

the gate and we're gonna be different

you either love it or you hate it if you

love it hopefully you buy it if you hate

it there'll be other trucks you can go

buy and I'm totally cool with that but

we don't plan on being a million

vehicles a year or anything like that so

we'll have our own niche of enthusiasts

and people who love us and that's great

for us okay so availability is at end of

2020 or yeah end of 2020 is when will be

ramping up the production and then the

actual ones off the line for sale mostly

in 2021

so the peers that Bollinger is making

progress along the way to production

Robert told me that first customer

trucks will arrive in early 2021 and of

course stay tuned to TFO truck comm for

a lot more coverage not just on

Bollinger but all the other electrified

trucks coming out including the Ford

f-150 hybrid and the all-electric truck

as well