The production-spec Bollinger B4 Chassis Cab is not only rolling off the assembly line in Livonia, Michigan but it's already being shipped to certified dealerships throughout the country and being put into service.
In this video, Clean Trucking Senior Editor Jay Traugott is at the company's Oak Park, Michigan headquarters where he's joined by Bollinger Chief Revenue Officer Jim Connelly for an exclusive walkaround and discussion.
What's changed from the pre-production version we drove last May at the ACT Expo in Las Vegas to the final model? What feedback are customers providing? And what steps do companies and local government agencies need to take in order to receive incentives and tax credits to help reduce the final price tag?
All of those questions and more are answered.
Contents of this video:
00:00 – Bollinger B4 Chassis Cab Updates
00:56 – Walkaround: Frame
02:00 – Walkaround: Cab
02:52 – Walkaround: Ground up Design
04:23 – Walkaround: E-Axle & ePTO
04:56 – Types of B4 Customers
06:00 – Range & Battery Info
06:42 – Purchase and Service Info
Jim Connelly
So we just started production of our vehicle this past September. So the vehicle you are looking at right here is the production model.
Jay Traugott
Hi everyone. I'm Jay Traugott senior editor of Clean Trucking. Today I am with Jim Connelly, chief revenue officer at Bollinger Motors here in Oak Park, Michigan. If you saw my last video with the Bollinger D4 chassis cab, I was in Las Vegas at the expo last May. Today we are doing part two of that. What is the difference of the truck we saw last May?
Jay Traugott
Jim, compared to the one we're looking at right now?
Jim Connelly
Yeah, well, we've come a long way since last May. So this is the vehicle that you would see coming off of the assembly.
Jay Traugott
Line over.
Jim Connelly
Here. So we've made, based on customer feedback, made a few changes to the vehicle. And we'll walk through some of the vehicle features and then some of the changes that came about because of customer demand.
Jim Connelly
So for Bollinger, what makes us different from other OEMs is our frame. We have, proprietary frame rails here. What makes us unique in that situation is this is a patented design. It narrows up towards the front of the cab. That narrowing up towards the front of the cab allows us a better turning radius for when we're in city and tight spaces, so we get a 46ft turning circle with that narrowing of the frame rail as it comes underneath the cab.
Jim Connelly
The width of the frame is also unique. It's a 40 inch width frame versus a standard 34. What that does for the customer, it allows us to put all of our batteries and our componentry safely within those frame rails, as you can see here. Some of the competitors who have saddlebag type batteries offered the side of it. So when you're looking at an up fitter, who's going to put something on the back of this, it's going to make that an easier up fit, less expensive, for it because there's less, engineering and stuff that they have to work around for stuff on the sides.
Jim Connelly
So when we design the Bollinger before, we went with a more traditional cab design, and we use the cab over design because we can get two feet more of up space on that vehicle. Also, if you walk to the front of the vehicle, as far as safety in city and maneuverability, you're going to get a better visibility for the driver versus that conventional cab that has that big, huge hood over the top of it that's difficult to see.
Jim Connelly
All right, so now that we're in the cab, one of the other changes that we made was moving the park from the center console here down to, between the seats right here. So we went with a rotary dial. This is more familiar to a driver in their own personal type of vehicle. So it made sense for us to add that here.
Jay Traugott
Now, you're telling me before we started filming something about the saddlebags here?
Jim Connelly
Yeah. Very interesting. With our vehicle, it's a ground up design. When you have a purpose built ground up designed to a vehicle, you do not have to work around certain componentry that already exists in your vehicle. Okay. So a lot of OEMs try to get to market quickly, and they take an existing Ice engine vehicle and they modify it to be an electrified vehicle.
Jim Connelly
And when you do that, there are sacrifices that need to be made because the existing design doesn't readily adapt to batteries or other componentry. That might be different than an Ice type of vehicle. And so what has caused OEMs to to adopt is putting batteries on the outside of their frame rails, which we call saddlebags, because that's kind of what they look like as saddlebags off the sides.
Jay Traugott
And they be located.
Jim Connelly
Normally and they would be located here. So here it it also can add width to the vehicle frame. If you look at them, they generally will have some type of cage around them like a protective Paquette protective case. Whereas with the Bollinger before, like I said, all the components are safely within these frame rails. So it's safer from a design perspective because if there's a side collision, you're going to be hitting the frame versus segregating a battery.
Jim Connelly
And with the Bollinger B4, all of our componentry and everything is serviceable from the bottom.
Jay Traugott
Okay. And then what are we looking at right.
Jim Connelly
Here in the back? We're looking at the axle. This axle is provided by Dana. This is what powers the vehicle. There's no engine underneath the cab area. This is what makes the vehicle go right here. And new for 2025 is our PTO. This will power up type of applications here. This will be out in Q1 of next year.
Jim Connelly
That's going to be able to power up fit applications like a bucket or something that needs to be in a telecom type application.
Jay Traugott
See?
Jay Traugott
I've noticed that a lot of the B4s are getting out to dealerships in different parts of the country. Who are some of the clients right now? The customers. What type of services are they providing?
Jim Connelly
They are telecom, so we've had some interest in some telecom spaces, large names in the telecom world. So your cable companies, your your phone service type of companies are interested in products like this. There are companies that have mandates and they want to go green. And so where these vehicles fit in their applications, they're trying to adopt early on those these type of electrified vehicles aren't going to meet every type of application.
Jim Connelly
So if you're doing a lot of city driving, you're going to have more braking. And so with this vehicle there is a regenerative braking. So you're going to get energy going back into your battery. And so if you're on a highway there's less braking and so forth. And if you're going, you know, 304 hundred miles, maybe this type of vehicle, from a battery perspective, isn't that application.
Jay Traugott
What's the range on these like from a 100% charge?
Jim Connelly
This particular vehicle, we've been testing it. And with an outfit, we're getting about 185 miles on a charge for this particular vehicle. So we have a two pack battery system with this vehicle. So it's, 158kW, a 800 volt system with the two battery packs. These batteries are sourced from our next energy. They're local. Here they are, a lithium ion phosphate.
Jim Connelly
Okay. Which is different from lithium ion phosphate, the lithium ion phosphate. They're less prone to thermal events, and they have longer life in regards to this type of application.
Jay Traugott
Okay. So Jim, say I'm a customer and I want to buy one. What is my next step?
Jim Connelly
Your next step is to go to one of our Bollinger Motors dealers. We have about 35 plus locations and growing across the US. So we're in strategic places across the US and we're growing more of that network now. So from that perspective, we have dealers that you can order them from as well as we have a network of dealers that can service the vehicle to when needed.
Jim Connelly
That's very important part of the process. You don't want to leave that customer hanging at just the delivery. And so when we look at it, we look at it as our dealers or as our partners, and they're the best suited to service our vehicles. And then where we may not have a dealer that might be close to you, we have the ability to do mobile service for those vehicles.
Jim Connelly
Then we use a company called a fleet for that type of application. And that's a leading name in the fleet world from serviceability of vehicles.
Jay Traugott
What if I am a government entity or agency and I want to buy one of these? What do I do then?
Jim Connelly
Oh good question. So it's similar to the commercial process. Okay. But in this case, we are on a the source of all contracts. So a lot of these state and local governments go through a company called source. Well, sure. We partner with National Auto Fleet on the source contract and so they could contact National Auto Fleet or one of our dealers in order to be able to, get that selected, pricing through source one.
Jay Traugott
Okay. Well, I think the next time we'll meet will be at Expo 2025 in Anaheim, California.
Jim Connelly
That's right. You're back in Anaheim.
Jay Traugott
I can't wait to see what, new features and other, updates you'll have at the time.
