Bollinger Motors Is Dead

• Bollinger Motors, a Michigan EV startup, stopped operations.
• The company made a Class 4  electric truck chassis with a cab–over design.
• Emails sent by the company’s HR boss show that Bollinger missed payroll for the last two pay periods.

Bollinger Motors, the maker of the B4 Class 4 electric truck, is out of business. Emails sent by the company’s human resources director and seen by the Detroit Free Press say that the Michigan-based startup’s last day of operations was last Friday.

“We received word late last night that the day has arrived, we are to officially close the doors of Bollinger Motors, effective today, November 21st, 2025,” Helen Watson, Bollinger’s HR chief, said in an email.

The company sprang into the spotlight in the late 2010s with the boxy B1 and B2 electric pickup and SUV, but neither model went into production. Instead, Mullen Automotive bought a controlling stake in the startup in 2022, and the entity started working on a Class 4 cab-over electric truck chassis.

However, the business never took off, and Bollinger found itself in the crosshairs of multiple lawsuits and financing woes. The startup’s founder, Robert Bollinger, left the company in March and sued parent company Mullen Automotive over a $10 million loan he gave last year, alleging that the startup was broke.

That passed, as Mullen paid back Bollinger. But other issues made their presence felt. Lawsuits from suppliers came and went, with six active cases from companies like Germany’s Thyssenkrupp and Brazil’s Metalsa still being on the Oakland County Circuit Court’s agenda, according to Automotive News.

Michery, the CEO of Mullen Automotive, took over as the leader of Bollinger Motors in June and put both companies under the “Bollinger Innovations” umbrella. While the entity that made the Bollinger B4 electric truck has closed, Bollinger Innovations is still open for business, the Detroit Free Press noted.

Dozens of employees have filed complaints over unpaid wages, and the state of Michigan is bound to fight over millions of dollars from the struggling EV maker after it failed to reach job milestones. Bollinger was awarded $3 million from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. after it promised to invest $44 million and create 237 jobs in Detroit’s metro area. As of September 30, the startup had no qualified new jobs and 50 base employees, according to a MEDC spokesperson, who added that Bollinger had until May 4 to fix the default by reaching job milestones. It “will be required to pay back all or a portion of those funds” if that doesn’t happen, Danielle Emerson said for Automotive News.

With the company out of business, that’s unlikely to happen now. As for the unpaid wages, Bollinger’s HR director said that David Michery, the CEO of Bollinger Innovations, will “make us whole with regards to the remaining monies.” “It is the end of an era, but one you should all be very proud of,” she added.