Bollinger’s electric truck is nothing like a Tesla, and that’s OK

It has become a trope to compare every new electric vehicle (EV) startup to Tesla. I know I'm guilty of doing so, but it's hard not to; for all its troubles with Model 3 mass production, you can't deny Tesla's achievements. Bollinger Motors is almost entirely unlike Tesla. There's no masterplan to ramp up to half-a-million units a year. No one is working on self-driving software or sensors. Its vehicle, a refreshingly utilitarian-looking thing called the B1, doesn't even have a touchscreen. But it may be the coolest EV in development, particularly if you're someone who prefers function over form.

The company is the brainchild of Robert Bollinger, who ended up in the fortunate position of being able to indulge his childhood passion—in this case building a car. Given a childhood drawing sports cars, it's therefore a little surprising that the B1 intends to remake the truck.

"Pickup trucks haven't changed in forever; they've just got plusher and more expensive. The B1 is about what I need: having a farm, being an adult, knowing I have to go to Home Depot sometimes, or there's going to be two feet of snow—this is your one multitool vehicle for everything," he told me when we spoke a few weeks ago.

The B1 has a few defining principles. For a start, there's 50:50 weight distribution, unlike a conventional nose-heavy truck. There's also a lot of ground clearance—between 10 to 20 inches (25.4 to 50.8cm), with nothing protruding underneath the vehicle to snag on obstacles off-road. And since there's an electric motor for each axle, the B1 has permanent all-wheel drive; each motor gets its own high/low range gearbox. Bollinger is buying the batteries, motors, and inverters, but it's making the rest in-house, documenting the process on YouTube for us to follow along.

Chamfers, edges, and creases

The first thing you notice is how it looks. My mind goes straight to the classic Land Rover Defender, but that might be a product of my background [Editor's note: It is. It reminds me of the venerable International Harvester Scout]. Bollinger said that vehicle was an influence, but so, too, were others. "My favorite look is that period of Defenders, Broncos, Internationals. But I never set out for it to purposely look like that. We wanted to make it in our shop, so we got a press brake; we wanted to buy sheets of metal and bend and cut them ourselves. We ended up sending out the body panels to a vendor in Albany, New York, and he cut and bent the stuff in a couple of days," he told me.

The alternative—to make something curvy and futuristic—would have taken a lot longer and cost a whole lot more. "The whole idea was to go flat and bendable and handmade," he explained. "Once you're in that wheelbase and using flat sheet, you're in that category of style. Also, I want to have one vehicle that we make for many years, so to make it futuristic now, it'll [look dated]. Classic is always better."

The classic look extends to the interior, where a large touchscreen infotainment system is conspicuously missing. There is a small LCD in the middle of the center stack, but otherwise it's analog all the way. There's also no airbag—with a gross vehicle weight of 10,001lbs (4,536kg) the B1 doesn't need to have one. Dry weight is about half that; the rest is cargo capacity.

Making the truck even more useful

The cabin reminds me of the first Range Rover, which was washable, but with even more practicality. Thanks to the B1's EV layout, there are acres of space to carry loads. A pass-through at the dash lets you carry 24 planks of 2x4. Standard sheets of plywood will fit in the back, and it can carry 5,000lb loads while towing a similar mass behind it.

The specs of the B1 have changed a little since I spoke with Bollinger in January. Back then, there were going to be 60kWh and 100kWh versions available. But this week, with the news that it had finished the four-door version, the battery had grown to 120kWh. But the idea is still the same: get into production by the end of next year, then build a few thousand trucks a year. The pricing has yet to be announced—Bollinger is waiting for a final bill of materials before doing so—but it might not be as expensive as you'd imagine.

"We're electric, we're low-volume, we're basically hand-built, so we're not going to be cheap. When we come out with our price point there will be some people who think we're a $200,000 vehicle, who will be pleasantly surprised. There are some people who want it to be a Jeep Wrangler-type vehicle, but there's no way that'll happen," he said.

I've heard the goal is to start at $60,000, presumably for a 60kWh version, so it's not going to be mass-market. But that's why we have the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Bolt, and Tesla Model 3.

Listing image by Bollinger Motors