Workhorse, a prominent commercial EV developer, has returned to the public eye after a few years of silence with the introduction of a new electric step van named the W56. The 1,000+ cubic foot cargo box was officially unveiled during NTEA’s Work Truck Week in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Although it has been a while since the name Workhorse Group Inc. ($WKHS) was in the spotlight, the company is recognized as one of the early players in the EV technology sector. The company has been involved in chassis manufacturing since the late 1990s, and in 2013, AMP EVs took over the Workhorse chassis brand to concentrate on EV manufacturing.
In 2016, Workhorse Group introduced the W-15, an all-electric pickup truck, and by 2019, it was in discussions with General Motors to acquire its production facility in Lordstown, Ohio. Following a 10% stake in a new EV start-up called Lordstown Motors, Workhorse revealed design details of its W-15 pickup under a licensing agreement that allowed the creation of the Lordstown Endurance, an EV maker with its own set of difficulties.
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In 2021, the company faced significant controversy due to investigations by both the US Department of Justice and the SEC related to traded securities. Reports showed that executives at the firm sold $60 million worth of company stock after learning that their bid to supply EVs to the revamped USPS fleet was in jeopardy. The order was eventually awarded to Oshkosh Defense, and Workhorse filed a formal complaint with the US Court of Federal Claims, protesting the decision. However, in September 2021, Workhorse dropped the complaint, and CEO Rick Dauch decided to focus on other business opportunities.
After 18 months of hard work, CEO Rick Dauch and his revamped team launched a new era for the Workhorse brand with the introduction of the W56 all-electric step van. The company unveiled the W56 at the Indian Convention Center, revealing that they used previous designs and millions of miles of service on roads to build the W56 as the first purpose-built chassis platform erected from the ground up at its factory in Union City, Indiana.
The W56, a Class 5/6 step van, is the first official vehicle designed and produced under the company’s revamped team. Workhorse has incorporated the extensive on-road learnings of its legacy vehicles into the W56 and improved upon those models with a new custom-designed chassis, demonstrating the caliber of trucks it will produce in the future.
Workhorse shared that the new zero-emissions delivery van was designed to meet the demands of various jobs using commercial vehicles and will be available in a variety of configurations to support those various business applications. The W56 features a cargo box with over 1,000 cubic feet of space and a payload capacity of up to approximately 10,000 pounds.
As a local work/delivery van, the Workhorse W56 will offer up to 150 miles of range on a single charge and was designed with last-mile delivery drivers in mind. The electric van features a lowered step-in and wider cabin door for easier movement in and out of the ergonomically designed cabin.
Production of the W56 step van is scheduled to begin in Q3 of this year, and customer demonstration EVs should be ready to deploy in the coming weeks, according to Workhorse.
