Little-Known EV Startup Is Manufacturing Vans in America

The ongoing electric vehicle (“EV”) revolution is not just limited to passenger electric vehicles. There are millions of fleet vehicles in America including trucks, vans and buses, and most experts agree that electrifying the U.S. fleets is a surefire way to increase mass EV adoption exponentially.

However, while several EV startups and established automakers have developed and unveiled passenger electric vehicles, with Rivian mass producing the first electric pickup truck, none of them seems to have made a major commitment towards producing electric vans in the near future. With most companies in the automotive space focused on small- and medium-sized EVs, a virtually unknown company has started producing fully electric vans.

EV startup Electric Last Mile Solutions (“ELMS”) has beaten every other automaker to the punch, developing and manufacturing the country’s first fully electric van. Formed in August 2020, ELMS was a backup plan for Chongping Sokon Industry Group, a Chinese auto manufacturer whose subsidiary SF Motors purchased a manufacturing plant in South Bend, Indiana, from AM General in 2017. SF Motors planned on building an electric SUV dubbed the SF5, but CEO Jim Taylor, a 30-year General Motor veteran, cautioned against going the SUV route because it would be too costly and the company would be facing stiff competition from other companies, such as Tesla and Ford.

Taylor persuaded parent company Sokon Industry Group to build electric delivery vans in the Indiana factory instead, something it was already doing in China. Unfortunately, the Chinese company didn’t want to spend any more money in America, so Taylor launched a new company with former Ford China chairman Jason Luo; they pair raised enough funds to buy the Indiana factory.

And thus began the life of Electric Last Mile Solutions. The startup immediately began outfitting the factory to make electric vans and, once it made a $30 million down payment for the $145 million facility, finally starting to build the vans in September.

The Urban Delivery is a bare-bones, all-electric, light-duty van with a relatively limited range that will be meant for contractors, delivery workers and other types of commercial fleets. Randy Marion Automotive Group, a collection of North Carolina dealerships, has already ordered 1,000 of ELMS’s electric vans. However, the first few hundred units, which were delivered on September 29, 2021, can only be used on campuses, airports and similar closed spaces because they do not meet full safety standards.

Companies such as Ideanomics Inc. (NASDAQ: IDEX) that are involved in developing fully electric vans through various subsidiaries have their work cut out for them if they hope to grab market share from the early pacesetters such as Electric Last Mile Solutions.

NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Ideanomics Inc. (NASDAQ: IDEX) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/IDEX

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