Amp Trucks Is Buying Workhorse Assets

Amp Trucks to Be First with Full Factory Alt Fuel Range

Amp will recommence Workhorse production at Union City as demand warrants – with a decided emphasis on battery electrics. ‘The delivery truck itself can be re-invented right here,’ says Amp CEO Steve Burns.

Amp Holding, parent of Amp Electric Vehicles in Ohio, has purchased Navistar’s Workhorse assets through a new Amp Trucks subsidiary – and says it will be the first to offer a full line of factory alternative fuel vehicles. “If it’s alternatively powered we’ll make it,” says Amp founder and CEO Steve Burns.

“If someone’s thinking of non-traditional power,” Burns told Fleets & Fuels Monday, “we want it to be Workhorse, from a factory point of view.” The definitive agreement, for a price Burns says will be disclosed later in the week, covers the Workhorse brand, logo, intellectual property, patents, assembly plant assembly plant in Union City, Ind. – and a network of some 440 Workhorse dealers.

The deal is expected to close by March 13.

Amp Trucks will maintain the Workhorse name. “We want to be known as a horse of a different color – green,” Burns says.

The Union City plant closed down in October, and will re-open according to demand. “The orders will drive everything,” Burns says. Amp will initially concentrate on battery electric vehicles, but will also offer gasoline trucks, and will pick up propane and compressed natural gas when customers ask for it.

“The main thrust is electric,” Burns says.

“With this acquisition,” the company said Monday, “Amp will be positioned to be the first truck OEM in the United States to offer a range of alternative fuel vehicles produced in an automated assembly plant.

“By offering an all-electric Workhorse chassis along with gasoline-powered, and alternative-fuel powered models, Amp will become a premier OEM capable of building alternative fuel vehicles for the commercial market.”

Burns notes that the chief Workhorse competitor in the walk-in van market, Freightliner Custom Chassis Corp, offers electric vehicles with drivelines installed by Electric Vehicles International in Stockton. Amp will do its own factory installations.

Dealer training will be relatively easy, Burns says, as Amp has designed its driveline for repowers, which means it is effectively in kit form already.

Amp is using motors from Remy (Booth 5453) and large format prismatic lithium iron phosphate battery cells primarily from China Aviation. Amp builds its own battery packs using a commercially available BMS (battery management system).

“We can pay back in four to five years and then it’s gravy for another 16,” Burns says – or gravy in as little as two years with incentives.

Navistar International is at Booth 3859.