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VIA Motors (VTRUX)

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What is VIA Motors? I can't find anything on it. They claim they are producing a truck that can achieve a range of 400miles, that is some sort of hybrid. Any thoughts? I can't find much info other than that Bob Lutz is running the show.
 
Hmmm.
Tesla's Model S (-160) is using a 40 kWh battery, and will get 160 miles out of it.
VIA's E-REV pickup truck is using a 24 kWh battery, and will get 40 miles out of it.

If I was wearing a Tesla-hater hat, I'd say that Tesla must be wildly optimistic about their range.
If I was wearing a VIA-hater hat, I'd say that their pickup truck must be ridiculously inefficient.
Since I don't wear a hat, I'll say that we should welcome the additional diversity in vehicle choices that will be soon available to us all.

--Ardie
 
Hmmm.
Tesla's Model S (-160) is using a 40 kWh battery, and will get 160 miles out of it.
VIA's E-REV pickup truck is using a 24 kWh battery, and will get 40 miles out of it.

If I was wearing a Tesla-hater hat, I'd say that Tesla must be wildly optimistic about their range.
If I was wearing a VIA-hater hat, I'd say that their pickup truck must be ridiculously inefficient.
Since I don't wear a hat, I'll say that we should welcome the additional diversity in vehicle choices that will be soon available to us all.

--Ardie

I don't think anyone was criticizing VIA.

Not funny. I am really hoping for some information not from their website. Anyone know anything about this? How are they planning on achieving range of 400miles?

The range is actually (from their website above):

20 mile Battery Range
340 Mile Extended Range

40 mile Battery Range
360 MileExtended Range

so the range you're talking about includes the added range from the ICE and gas tank.
 
Seems PG&E has a lot to say about Via motors:
PG&E Currents: PG&E promotes VIA motors
PG&E Currents: PG&E shows off electric pickup
PG&E Currents: Via motors gets red carpet treatment at hollywood event
PG&E Currents: PG&E adding via motors pickups to its' fleet saves gas
PG&E Currents: Electric vehicle displayed at solar event
EV-truck-2-300x224.jpg
 
I was driving my Model S through the Colorado River canyon upstream from Moab the other day and stopped to fly my quadcopter to capture some video and stills, when this white pickup truck sees me and slams on the brakes, and two guys hop out. I'm thinking, Oh, crap: they must be rangers or something here to confiscate my 'copter. But it turns out they're with VIA Motors and are in the area filming commercials. We had a nice chat and then they were off...

20140305-P3051014.jpg


20140305-DJI00032.jpg
 
(Edit: Ah... sorry, this thread showed up in my feedreader featuring the first post as new. Just noticed that this is a super old thread. Rob, I think I haven't heard anything since that EV conference in October. Will be presenting there again in October and see what I can dig up.)

We've been covering them for years, but the company has been very quiet in the past year (edit: aside from Bob Lutz getting up and talking *sugar* about Tesla and the Chevy Bolt from time to time, presumably outside of his role at Via Motors). That said, its focus is fleet sales, so it doesn't need to advertise as much as convince fleet managers to make sizable orders. There's some interesting stuff in the presentation in the first article on the first link. It was at an EV conference I was presenting at that several Florida utilities were also presenting at. There seemed to be quite a bit of demand for them that took awhile for Via Motors to supply.

Via Motors Archives - EV Obsession

Via Motors Archives | CleanTechnica

Via Motors Archives - Gas 2
 
I don't remember the source, but last I recall, they went ahead with production of the Chevy Express Van based platform since it was not due for update. They are waiting for the next generation Silverado pickup to be available from the neighboring Chevy plant in Mexico. At some point they were so late that they were up against the model changeover and decided not to bother with the old model Silverado.