eSpotlight: Zeus Electric Chassis Inc.

Welcome back to eSpotlight, where we are giving our Partners, Members, Clients, and Preferred Service Providers a chance to tell their story about our work together and what they bring to the future mobility table. This week we have a very special guest post written by Robert Grinstead, Founder and CTO of Zeus Electric Chassis Inc., our newest commercial client announced earlier this week!

Zeus Electric Chassis Inc. (Zeus) is the only class 3-8 purpose-built, severe-duty electric truck solution in North America. Our mission is to design and manufacture uncompromising, full electric vocational solutions that address environmental and industry needs. Our ground-up approach and willingness to co-develop allows our customers to reimagine their future business model. Zeus is well networked within the e-mobility ecosystem, partnering with market leading technology suppliers, work truck OEM’s, upfitters, end-user fleets, and non-profit industry leaders with the mission of accelerating EV adoption nationwide. Zeus Electric Chassis Inc. is a Delaware corporation based in White Bear Lake, MN.

Helping Start-Ups Enter the California EV Mobility Market By Robert Grinstead, Founder and CTO, Zeus Electric Chassis Inc.

One of the goals of the California Mobility Center (CMC) is to alleviate barriers to entry for early-stage companies poised to make a difference in the e-mobility ecosystem. As a client of the CMC, Zeus Electric Chassis was able to leverage their network and expertise to develop a collaborative relationship with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).

Now the team at Zeus is poised to secure the sale of their first five vehicles to SMUD. Zeus has developed a full electric medium-duty work truck solution that is designed to easily integrate with multiple vocational body configurations and auxiliary tool packages. With its innovative, ground-up chassis design – in fact, the only one of its kind in the US – and lots of early supporters, Zeus still faced the difficulty of navigating the byzantine network of the California mobility industry to bring their EV solutions to market.

Faced with the challenge of meeting their own carbon neutral goals and CA electric vehicle mandates, SMUD was looking to expand their EV fleet adoption into this class of work trucks. While options are available for converting existing diesel chassis to electric, none of these fits the bill for the fleet crews quite as well as the ground-up differentiated design of the Zeus Chassis. The Zeus team ultimately met every specification presented to them without forcing the work crews to compromise on their standard operating procedures.

The CMC recognized the benefits for both Zeus and SMUD to work together and facilitated their partnership. The CMC is making their facilities available for the initial commissioning of 5 SMUD trucks in Q4 of 2021. They are also supporting the fleet adoption process by bringing E Source on board; they facilitated Zeus’ partnership with California Strategies, for guidance in working with CARB certification, accessing voucher programs for SMUD, and pursuing future grant opportunities. The CMC is also already in communications with other fleets in the Sacramento area, bringing additional opportunities and value to Zeus.

“The partnership between SMUD and Zeus epitomizes the CMC’s unique ability to broker meaningful interactions for companies on both sides of the spectrum and is a perfect example of the CMC delivering on exactly what it is designed to achieve,” said CMC Chief Operating Officer Mark Rawson.

Zeus has been delighted to work with the CMC. Their mission is essential in helping early-stage companies like Zeus bring effective, new ideas to solving the challenges of the changing mobility ecosystem, starting in California, and growing nationwide.