For a first-grade project on solving community issues, Motiv Power Systems founder Jim Castelaz chose pollution as his topic. He sketched his prophetic solution onto a poster board. It read, “make electric cars.”

Castelaz did make an electric car, using scrap lumber and 12-volt batteries. But that was when he was still in elementary school. Nowadays he’s tackling bigger projects.

Motiv, headquartered in a modest light industrial and commercial park in Foster City, Calif., a few miles south of San Francisco, develops and builds electric powertrains and supplies complete zero-emissions electric chassis for medium-duty trucks and buses.

The electric school bus market keeps charging up, now with a new Type A model on the way from Collins Bus Corp.

The forthcoming Collins electric school bus utilizes Motiv Power Systems’ Electric Powered Intelligent Chassis (EPIC), based on the Ford E-450 platform. Motiv’s EPIC 4 Dearborn, the chassis for the Collins electric bus, has a gross vehicle weight rating of 14,500 pounds and a range of up to 75 miles. The battery pack capacity is 85 or 106 kilowatt-hours, with charging times of two hours for 50%, four hours for 75%, and eight hours for 100%.

With the “big three” school bus manufacturers all unveiling electric school buses or concepts, 2017 was apparently a tipping point for acceptance of the technology in pupil transportation.

Blue Bird was awarded a $4.4 million grant in 2016 from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop an electric school bus, and debuted two models — a Type C and a Type D — last year, and brought them to market in 2018. (Micro Bird also unveiled its new electric-powered Type A Micro Bird G5 Electric school bus in 2017. The bus has been undergoing testing for certification and the manufacturer expects to deliver a number of units by the end of September.)

Winnebago’s Specialty Vehicles Division is now offering an all-electric commercial RV shell with up to 125 miles of zero-emission range. Designed as an RV chassis with a customizable interior, these vehicles are often used for short-range, fixed base operations like mobile health clinics, classrooms or sales offices. Available on 33′ and 38′ Class A platforms, the 100% Battery Electric Vehicle uses Ford’s F53 ZEV truck chassis modified with an electric drivetrain from Motiv Power Systems.

You can get electric cars, SUVs and trucks. Soon, you could be seeing electric Winnebagos.
There's no word, yet, on when you could be spending the night in one.

Winnebago is famous for campers, but the first electric Winnebago models won't be recreational vehicles. Instead, Winnebago's first plug-in models are intended to be used locally for things like mobile classrooms, outreach vehicles and bloodmobiles.

Motiv Power Systems has announced its commencing sales of all-electric EPIC 4 Series Dearborn chassis with Champion Bus. The new zero emissions shuttles feature the Challenger EV body manufactured by Champion in Imlay City, Michigan. Based on the popular Ford E-450 platform, the EPIC chassis-equipped Champion Challenger EV is the first of its kind OEM integration for the North American shuttle bus market.

Iconic RV maker Winnebago Industries (NYSE: WGO) has launched an EV platform, and formed a strategic partnership with commercial EV chassis builder Motiv Power Systems for the development and supply of EV components. As part of the deal, Winnebago intends to make a financial investment in Motiv.

Winnebago’s EV is designed for short-range commercial applications such as mobile medical clinics, bloodmobiles and mobile classrooms. It’s based on a Class A RV platform, and uses Motiv’s Ford F53-based EPIC chassis, with six to eight battery packs. Expected range is 85 to 125 miles, and it will be available in 33-foot and 38-foot lengths with a GVWR up to 26,000 pounds. Winnebago has already conducted “significant road testing.”

Winnebago, a maker of commercial vehicles better known for its motor homes, is launching a new all-electric RV platform, but the applications for the vehicle will be limited at first and therefore, it will not be used as an electric motorhome just yet.

The company partnered with Motiv Power Systems, a company developing electric powertrains for mid-size vehicles and better known for their work in Ford’s Electric Qualified Vehicle Modifier (eQVM) program.