AMP Electric Vehicle CEO Stephen Burns said the company will be focusing in on the U.S. commercial truck fleet market, backing off its electric passenger car efforts.


"There is a real need for the trucking industry to move away from petroleum-based products and we believe we can help to satisfy this need," Burns said in the company's first investor call.

The company had been working with Mercedes to produce an electric SUV, but after hundreds of test drives, Burns said it became apparent that passenger cars in the electric vehicle segment weren't growing in demand as quickly as forecasted. "So we put that development on hold," he said.

AMP said that fleets of any range are target customers, from large fleets to "plumbers and florists," adding that it will mainly work on the medium-duty segment of under 20,000 lbs. Particularly, Burns said, the company will focus on its electric step van.

Burns cited how electric-modified step vans, according to AMP, payback within 3 to 4 years. "The surprising truth is that although an all-electric step van costs more at the beginning, on a 10-year cost basis, they are at least $100,000 cheaper than the air-polluting, climate-changing diesels that fill the roads these days," he said.

AMP Electric Vehicles is working with Navistar and announced earlier this year the successful testing of its electric step van, which is designed to get 100 miles in range from one charge.

Contributed by Business Fleet, a sister Bobit Business Media publication.