How Lightning eMotors Became the Largest Commercial Electrification Company in the US

Lightning Day by Lightning eMotors, attracted politicians, fleet buyers and thrill seekers to South Pasadena City Hall. The day proved that Lightning eMotors electric vans are ready for the road, are easy to drive and set to transform the industry. Roger Vartanian, Director of Sales, Western US, sat down with Auto Futures during the event and explained why the company is succeeding in electrifying commercial vehicles.

Lightning eMotors Background and Latest Transformative Use

I have been hearing about Lighting eMotors for a long time. It provided the ADA van for Perrone Robotics at CES, and in May it announced a partnership to equip its vehicles with Perrone's AV-powered technology, TONY. The company also provided the powertrain for the Winnebago eRV. 

This year, Lightning eMotors retrofitted existing fleets to electric, expanded its manufacturing facility and partnered with GM to be the first GM Specialty Vehicle Manufacturer (SVM) to provide fully electric Class 3 through Class 6 commercial vehicles. The company makes powertrains for transit vehicles, shuttle buses, box trucks, step vans and cargo trucks.

At the event, it was announced the Lighting eMotors ADA van will be used for a pilot mobile crisis program in the San Gabriel Valley spearheaded by the city of South Pasadena.

"We believe this project will transform the entire industry in this sphere of mobile crisis vans, medical vans, medical support vans and vans that help senior citizens," says South Pasadena Mayor, Michael Cacciotti, who arrived on his bicycle.

"When I go to the doctor's office, there are dozens of vans in the application medical services. There are thousands of these vans in LA County and millions in the United States. The benefit of going from diesel or gas is that there are no emissions. You are helping public health, helping driver health and reducing our dependence on foreign oil," says Mayor Cacciotti.

South Pasadena and neighbouring cities will be deploying a Lighting eMotors electric crisis ADA van that will offer services to the unhoused and those who are in crisis and drive them to the resources they need.

Local politicians and neighbours were invited to ride or drive the ZEV3-Ford Transit 350HD Cargo Van or the ZEV3-Ford Transit 350HD ADA Passenger Van.

Ride and Drive Passes the Driving Tests

I drove the ZEV3 cargo van. Because I have driven many electric cars, I knew to push lightly on the accelerator pedal. I found it manoeuvred easily but required a bit more pressure than driving most lighter EVs.

Then I went for a ride in the ZEV3 ADA van where a masked man, who seemed to think he was a race car driver, decided to test the instant torque on the deepest curve and steepest hill in town. While I screamed, "What is this crazy driver doing?" the man in front of me tightened his seat belt and yelled, "Buckle up!"

The van handled all the tests the crazy driver put it through until we arrived at city hall safely.

Lightning eMotors - History, Advantages and Education

Vartanian says Lightning eMotors was developed as a sustainable fleet company in 2009. But in 2017, founder Tim Reeser saw that the future was in medium to heavy-duty electric commercial vehicles with access to chassis and the various platforms that the company could build on and that were readily available.

He explains Lightning eMotors built its first powertrains for the transit platform and then expanded to the E-450 for shuttle buses, school buses, box trucks and step vans. The F-550 platform is for shuttle buses and work trucks.

"We have taken the most popular platforms in the commercial truck space, and developed electric powertrains on them. Hence we are the largest or the leading commercial electrification company in the country," says Vartanian, "We just crossed over the 2 million customers driven mile point on our powertrains in July."

From a performance standpoint, the electric vans offer much smoother acceleration. The regenerative braking program allows the vehicle to slow down more aggressively, so there is less use of the brake pedal. The driving experience is different from an ICE vehicle, reports Vartanian.

He sees education as the best way to inform fleet owners about electrification.

"We're educating our clients to understand what range, payload and charging solutions that are out there. More importantly, how to manage the charging infrastructure and charging opportunities," says Vartanian.

"From a cost-saving standpoint, we are educating them to do what they want. It is about a 70% cost reduction in operating costs by running an electric vehicle over an ICE vehicle. They just have to understand how they have to make some changes to their business model to implement electric vehicles into the fleet. It's not that difficult. The technology and everything's there to do it," he adds.

The Separate Helping Arms of Lightning eMotors

Lighting eMotors has a separate portion of the company called Lightning Energy that provides helps with level two and level three charging solutions.

"If a fleet is looking to electrify their vehicles, we can also supply them with the chargers that they need the infrastructure and power has to be brought in by an electrician," says Vartanian.

The analytics program provides all of the data that the customers need for daily, weekly and monthly reports, as well as real-time visibility of the vehicle.

"Our 4G system, shows what is going on in the powertrain itself and the charging system. If anything is going wrong, the customer is notified in advance of it happening."

"Everything eventually breaks down. But we can prevent it. We can proactively address it because we can see if something is going wrong before the operator knows it. Then we have the service facilities to handle any problems," he says.

Why Have a Lightning Day Ride & Drive?

I asked Vatarnian why the company held the event.

"The biggest reason for us to do these events is for the ride and drive. Everybody has something on paper. However, actually driving the vehicle, experiencing the technology, the creep, the hill and acceleration - all of it is what really sells the vehicle. It sells because we build a powertrain for existing vehicle platforms," he answers.

The powertrain includes the motor, the drive motor and all electrical components that go along that and the batteries, he says.

"People are amazed. The first person that drove the ADA van was one of the drivers for the South Pasadena paratransit system. He was blown away by how smooth the vehicle drove - how efficient the regenerative braking was and how much power is in the vehicle. When he accelerated around the hills in this neighbourhood, he noticed how smooth that was. He was in shock that this vehicle could perform so well." 

Finally, I asked him about the crazy driver who had me sweating even though the air conditioning was on full blast. Was this the correct way to drive a Lightning eMotors ZEV3 ADA transit van?

"Everybody drives differently. That could be the way he normally drives. We provide an in-service program, Lightning Systems Training. We come out and show the fleet operators how to correctly operate the vehicle and correctly drive the vehicle because the battery efficiency depends on how fast you accelerate and how you brake. Truly, the vehicle is designed to be a one-pedal driving experience. When it is done right - it rides smoothly," he says.