Zeus Electric Chassis, Inc., a North American manufacturer of medium-duty Class 4-6 purpose-built, severe-duty, electric work truck solutions, announced the details of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with AUSEV during a media event held at the ACT Expo on May 11, in Long Beach, California. AUSEV is a subsidiary of Boss Capital Holdings (Boss) dedicated to the manufacture and distribution of electric vehicles.
The MOU will provide opportunities for the companies to collaborate in the distribution, service, and marketing of the Zeus Electric Chassis all-electric cab-chassis in Australia and the broader Oceania market. Zeus will be exporting a new, right-hand drive (RHD) version of its Z-19 Power Platform to Australia as part of the MOU.
Boss Managing Director Edward Kocwa said an agreement, when signed, will unlock exciting opportunities to launch the electrified work truck market in Australia. “The mission at AUSEV is to accelerate the adoption of RHD electrical vehicles into the market, and an agreement will allow us to do that and become a leading distributor of heavy-duty RHD 4x4 electric trucks in Australia.”
A purchase commitment for 100 Zeus vehicles - a combination of fully assembled cab-chassis and partially assembled units (knock-down kits (KDKs) – will be central to the agreement. The MOU provides for final assembly of the KDKs in Australia.
“Our subsidiary, Advanced Manufacturing Queensland, located in Brendale, has the ability to manage the assembly of initial knock-down kits,” noted Kocwa.
Kocwa said that he appreciates the excellent working relationship AUSEV shares with the Zeus team: “Partnering with Zeus was an obvious choice due to their solution-ready offering to the market. We recognized the value in a fully engineered solution that not only allowed speed to market for AUSEV, but could also provide on-purpose configurations of vehicle body types for fleet and asset managers who are being mandated to lower their CO2 emissions.”
For Zeus, a strategic agreement will allow it to leverage AUSEV’s presence and expertise in Australia and throughout the Oceania region at large to generate revenue and growth outside of North America.
“There will be continued opportunity for joint development of the Power Platform to integrate with different vocational truck bodies as AUSEV and Zeus work together to penetrate the Australian EV medium-duty truck space,” said Zeus CEO Bob Grinstead.
Moving forward, Zeus will continue to support the expansion of its product portfolio. As part of the impending agreement, Zeus will provide business development and marketing related content, target market analysis, total cost of ownership and return on investment analyses, ongoing engineering support and new options for chassis design.
Headquartered in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, Zeus recently introduced its all-electric Power Platform cab-chassis designed exclusively for the vocational work truck industry. Its Class 4-6 cab-chassis is designed from the ground up to accommodate the widest possible variety of truck bodies and to operate all traditional truck-mounted equipment.
