$148M Electric Truck Startup Is Going Down in Flames, Fast

Things aren’t looking good for Bollinger Motors, the electric vehicle startup that turned $148 million into about 40 mostly-unsold commercial trucks and a whole lot of drama. In March, its founder and ex-CEO Robert Bollinger sued the company’s current owner Mullen Automotive over an unpaid $10M loan, and last week a judge in Michigan granted his request to put the company into receivership after Mullen skipped out on the hearing, according to Automotive News.

Quite a bit has happened, and not much of it good, since Bollinger founded his eponymous car company. Bollinger Motors was born in upstate New York but raised in Detroit. Its initial manufacturing dream was to build consumer-centric off-road electric vehicles like the B1 SUV and B2 pickup truck. But fleet customers caught its eye, and the EV automaker introduced its Deliver-E electric delivery van before going all-in on the commercial side of the automotive business. 

And after all of that, including a $3 million-plus investment from the state of Michigan, owner Mullen Automotive Inc., and subsequently Bollinger Motors, is out of funds and out of time. 

Bollinger left the EV company that carries his name and the Detroit area nearly a year ago. However, in a federal filing made against Mullen Automotive in March, Bollinger claims he is owed $10.5 million from a personal loan he made to the company. Bollinger added that the company is facing litigation from at least two suppliers. The ruling from the judge last week freezes the Bollinger Motors’ assets and paves the way for a liquidation plan.

Additional reporting from The Detroit News says the EV truck maker had also defaulted on about $500,000 of credit card debt, a financial burden somehow guaranteed by Bolllinger himself, even though he was not employed by or had any executive ties to the company. As a result, Bollinger’s personal credit cards were being denied.

To date, only 40 of the B4, an electric commercial chassis cab truck, have been built. Production started last year, with the team working on a long-wheelbase version dubbed the B5. Scheduled to debut in 2026, that vehicle is likely in jeopardy.

Even though everything is now up in the air, Bollinger Motors CEO Bryan Chambers is thinking only positive thoughts. “During this period, we are focused on moving forward and remain committed to bringing our customers a world-class vehicle,” Chambers told AN. “And we remain optimistic about our future and the impact we will have on the commercial vehicle market.”

Interestingly, despite the lawsuit, Bollinger still commends Mullen, which remains a shareholder but no longer runs the day-to-day operations. “Mullen did an amazing job of funding us and getting us to where we are,” Bollinger said. “There’s a lot of interest in the product, and the best possible outcome is for the company to continue as it is.”

In the meantime, Bollinger made a personal guarantee to maintain the salaries of the company’s 100 employees. In a meeting with former employees following the recent ruling, Bollinger expressed that he would be “available financially” to help handle costs, at least in the short term.

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