What do you get when you cross a Scion Xb with a HUMVEE? The hunkiest, chunkiest, ruggedest, toughest, most badass vehicle of all time. The updated Bollinger B1 and B2 have all the grace and style of 1930s-era box car for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway and that’s the point. No one is going to outdo Elon Musk and his band of merry pranksters when it comes to penning a Blade Runner-style electric pickup truck, so why not go completely in the opposite direction and create a brick on wheels?
Bollinger B1 courtesy Bollinger Motors
Bollinger B2 courtesy Bollinger Motors
Originally unveiled in 2017, the Bollinger duo offered potential customers a choice of a 60 or 100 kWh battery and single or dual motors. The latest prototypes, revealed last week in a livestream event, are both 4-door models with dual motors and 120 kWh batteries.
The official specs are 614 horsepower and 668 ft-lb of torque. Originally, the B1 was only supposed to have a 360 horsepower motor with 472 lb-ft of torque, according to Jalopnik. Payload for each vehicle is 5,000 lbs and each has a towing capacity of 7,500 lbs. 0-60 happens in 4.6 seconds, which is plenty speedy for a vehicle with a GVWR of 10,001 lbs. As you can see from the photos, ground clearance will be an issue.
Both will come with a two-speed gearbox for off road grunt and relaxed highway travel. Top speed is given as 100 mph. With the aerodynamics of an airplane hangar, it’s no surprise 200 miles is about the most range customers can expect from either of these beasts.
That GVWR is interesting. Jalopnik points out that any vehicle with more than a 10,000 lbs rating is considered a Class 3 vehicle and is exempt from certain safety requirements like air bags. That could save the company some money when the vehicles go into production next year. Bollinger has released no price information at this point but says more than 30,000 people have expressed interest in owning one.
If the price is $50,000, Bollinger will sell flotillas of these vehicles. If it is $150,000, they will sell a few to wealthy sportsmen who are into zero carbon transportation for their grouse hunting expeditions. One thing is for certain. Bollinger drivers will never have trouble finding their vehicles in a crowded parking lot!
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