Bollinger motors dies after 10 years, without delivering a single vehicle. The good news: Michigan taxpayers only lost $3 million subsidizing it.

Photo above - which of these EV trucks cancelled production this month? Trick question - both Bollinger AND Ford did . . . .

Were you an angel investor who put money into Bollinger motors? I tried to get a list, and the only names I could come up with were “Robert Bollinger” ($148MM), Mullen Automotive (<$10MM) and “Michigan Governor Whitmer" ($3MM), without consulting the state's taxpayers. There may be other investors, but they declined to have their identities revealed on the internet.

You’re all at zero now.

Bollinger sent an email this week to the 60 employees who were suing for unpaid wages. Essentially: “Sorry, we went bankrupt. Again. Good luck and have a nice life.” Apparently no emails were sent to Governor Whitmer, Michigan's taxpayers, or the Detroit Free Press.

I take no joy in announcing the death of another fantasy-based EV carmaker. Trump’s abandonment of EV subsidies will undoubtedly be blamed for Bollinger's self destructdion, but let’s face reality here. The company had 10 years to bring it’s EV truck to market. Zero were sold to actual consumers. Apparently 30 were loaned/leased to some company years ago. Good luck getting spare parts for those now.

The Bollinger B2’s fatal flaw – other than being named after an outrageously overpriced Air Force bomber? It was outrageously overpriced itself, at $120,000. And also there were no showrooms, no mall kiosks to take a test drive, or websites to get in line for later delivery.

Ford ended i'ts F150 platinum EV truck production a few weeks ago, in case you hadn’t heard. Announced on November 6th. This follows a fire at Ford aluminum plant. A restaurant near my home burned down too. Arson investigators are still at work there. How do you set aluminum on fire anyway? That stuff has a melting point of 1,220 degrees! An unattended candle or pile of oily rags won’t get the job done.

Ford used to claim that 150,000 F150 Lighting trucks have been sold. Don’t you believe it. Actual production numbers for all 4 years barely cracked 100,000 units, and tens of thousands of those are still sitting on dealer lots and at factory storage facilities.

So why did the F150 lightning die? At one point Ford was even giving away a “free” home charging unit (level 2) if you agreed to buy or lease their truck. But the sticker price started at about $80,000, and it had crappy towing/range capability unless you spend tens of thousands more on extended batteries and other upgrades. Ford lives in a bubble and apparently never realized that most F50’s are parked outside, because they are too long, wide, and tall to fit in a garage. So the “free” chargers are kind of useless unless you run 240 volt-80 amp service from your basement to a standalone outdoor kiosk which shelters protect your charger from rain and snow. A mini-garage for your charger.

Tesla Cybertruck . . . I'm looking at you. Your base model starting price is $82,236. Do you have some sort of announcement on future production?

I'm just sayin' . . .



Whitmer’s Michigan: EV start-up Bollinger Motors 'to officially close the doors' despite $3 million from taxpayers - The Midwesterner

Bollinger Motors - Wikipedia

Ford F-150 Lightning Sales Numbers, Figures, Results

Ford reportedly considers ending production of F-150 Lightning EV