While past experience doesn’t guarantee future success, it certainly does bode well if the objective is to build a company into a major OEM capable of competing with anything and everything out there. That is no small task when one considers the ever-growing list of EV players in the marketplace. However, VIA Motors is not new to the scene, nor is it unfamiliar with the OEM ecosystem. Founded in 2010, the company began its foray into the commercial EV space by converting General Motors (GM) vehicles into plug-in hybrids.
“General Motors vehicles were a logical choice because of the background of the founders and senior management,” says Frank Jenkins, senior director of sales and marketing for VIA Motors. “VIA’s chairman of the board, Robert Lutz and its chief executive officer and director Robert Purcell among them.”