Gillig has apparently bought the former Lightning eMotors site in Loveland, Colorado, and it will retain some of the company's engineers in order to turn it into a dedicated electric powertrain technology hub. 

Lightning ZEV4 Type A School Bus, Clean Bus certification and funding, and Lightning Mobile fast charging trailer, are just some of the products and developments the e-Mobility specialist has brought to market this year.

The telematics software, Lightning Insights, is powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS), and allows operators to manage commercial fleets in real-time, tracking up to 156 separate data points. This data has been generated in eight years monitoring 600 + vehicles over eight million kilometres.

The ZEV4 truck is available in several variants (box truck, stake bed truck, dump truck, utility truck or cargo delivery vehicle) and is equipped with 120 kWh batteries located within the frame rails, delivering 241 horsepower, and offers up to 210 km (130 miles) of range on a single charge.

The order consists of Lightning ZEV3 vans (cargo and passenger) and ZEV4 shuttle buses. The delivery of the ZEV3 vans has begun with the rest of the order set for completion by the end of this year (2023).

The company produced 381 units in 2022, up from 156 units in 2021 and generated USD 24.4 million in 2022, up 16% from USD 21 million in 2021.

The Lightning ZEV3 passenger e-van received the American Federal Transit Administration’s Altoona testing certification, qualifying it for purchase or lease with state or federal grant funding.

The new virtual fleet planner provides fleet managers with a customised operating cost analysis and carbon metrics for their electric vehicle fleet.

The two companies - who have already produced school buses on the Ford Class 4 chassis platform - will now start working with the GM 4500 as well; a cutaway van chassis best known as the basis for the ‘Silverado’ pickup truck range by Chevrolet.

Lightning eMotors Inc, has announced a partnership with AI company Perrone Robotics to provide customers with Class 3-7 commercial vehicles equipped with varying levels of autonomy.

Macon, Georgia-based school bus builder Blue Bird Corp has entered the truck segment with the announcement of its Class 5-6 EV stripped chassis at ACT Expo in Long Beach, California.

Lightning eMotors Corp, based in Loveland, Colorado, has completed the expansion of its manufacturing facility to more than 226,000sq-ft, doubling its production capacity. The firm expects the investment of more than USD5 million to support an annual production capacity of up to 1,500 zero emission vehicles and powertrain systems by the end of 2022.