The Bollinger B2 Is the Beefy 520BHP Electric 4×4 We’ve Been Waiting For

The Bollinger B2 Is the Beefy Electric Truck We’ve Been Waiting For
We’d seen the B1 SUV. Now it has a pickup truck brother, The BOLLINGER.

The Bollinger B2

While electric sedans and hatchbacks are proliferating, nobody has tried to build a serious electric SUV or pickup truck. Bollinger Motors, based in Michigan, intends to remedy that deficit in 2020. We already knew about the company’s B1 SUV. Now, here comes the newly announced B2 pickup.

Last July, when Bollinger was still headquartered in upstate New York, I visited the company and took a ride in the B1 prototype. The B1 was the big news then, but founder Robert Bollinger was already thinking about pickups, too. “Heavy-duty trucks are useless off-road,” he said. “The suspension’s too stiff, and the weight distribution is horrible—pickups have no weight on the rear end.”

Bollinger B1 interior. Ezra dyer

The B2 should remedy both of those problems. Like the B1, it has a floor-mounted battery pack and dual motors to provide a nearly even front-to-rear weight distribution. And the hydropneumatic suspension and portal gear hubs solve the suspension problem—these systems ride the same whether loaded or unloaded, which is how the B2 can carry 5,000 pounds. That payload capacity vaults the B2 over the 10,001-pound threshold for a Class 3 truck, meaning it’ll be exempt from passenger-car safety standards (for instance: airbags).

Bollinger B1

With the dual motors providing 520 horsepower and 514 lb-ft of torque, the B2 will have plenty of power, although the claimed zero-to-60 time is a sedate 6.5 seconds. (When I checked out the early B1, which had 360 horsepower, Bollinger claimed zero-to-60 would be 4.5 seconds). Perhaps Bollinger is optimising range over speed, since the 200-mile range seems generous for something shaped like a shipping container and rolling on knobby 285/70/17 off-road tires. Sure, the 120-kWh battery pack contains two Chevy Bolts’ worth of juice, but this thing is more than two Bolts’ worth of vehicle.

The B2’s ground clearance is between ten and 20 inches, depending on the suspension’s height setting. Oh, and the B2 can carry 72 sheets of plywood with the internal tailgate down and the rear window flipped up, which is especially impressive given its relatively compact dimensions. Its 207.5-inch length makes it a few inches shorter than a regular-cab short-bed Silverado. Like the B1, the B2 also has a front tailgate and pass-through to the cab.

Sound awesome? They’re taking orders. Pricing won’t be announced until next year, but we’d expect it’ll cost more than a Ram Tradesman. But, hey, what other truck will carry a 16-foot piece of lumber inside the vehicle?