California-based Motiv Power Systems, a provider of medium-duty all-electric fleet chassis for trucks and buses (earlier post), announced a supply agreement with BMW to integrate the latest (third) evolution of BMW’s passenger car lithium-ion battery packs into Motiv’s EPIC (Electric Powered Intelligent Chassis).

When Motiv specs a battery for a chassis, we are looking for factors that matter most to our end users. These include initial cost, reliability over time, and end-of-life replacement costs. With BMW’s latest version of its lithium ion packs, commonly found on its all electric i3 passenger cars, we were able to find a compelling battery solution that checks all those boxes. BMW’s lithium ion batteries are well suited for use in commercial fleet vehicle deployments because they represent millions of real-world miles globally—meaning they have seen every potential road condition that Motiv-powered vehicles are likely to encounter—and have proven to be both dependable and reliable.

—Jim Castelaz, Motiv’s Founder and CEO

The BMW battery-equipped EPIC chassis will be available across Motiv’s entire range of vehicle applications and will debut at the 2019 Work Truck Show, held 5-8 March in Indianapolis.

EPIC are CARB-certified, GSA-approved, and available for many configurations including walk-in vans, box trucks, work trucks, shuttle buses, school buses, trolleys, and other specialty vehicles.

Motiv is a Ford eQVM-approved provider of all-electric chassis for commercial trucks and buses and benefits from engineering insights and support from Ford to ensure safety and reliability.