On December 14, California-based Mullen Automotive announced that it would partner with Loop Global, an EV charging company, on a network of Level 2 and Level 3 DC fast-charge stations.
Mullen said that Loop will provide its smart charging technology, and be involved in site assessment, installation, design and ongoing operation of the stations. Mullen said that stations will be built, owned and operated through Loop’s “unique” financing system, the Loop Impact Fund. A portion of the monthly charging revenue will pay for station upgrades over a fixed term.
“Our partnership with Loop…aligns with our goal of end-to-end efficiency to make owning a Mullen EV much more user-friendly,” said David Michery, chairman and CEO of Mullen.
Mullen has yet to produce any vehicles, though it has announced orders and claims to have had breakthroughs in developing next-generation solid-state batteries. Mullen said in 2020 that its licensed solid-state battery technology “may be capable of enabling an electric vehicle to travel 640 miles at a cruising speed of 55 mph on a flat surface, and 550 miles at a cruising speed of 75 mph, which could allow for significantly longer driving distances on a single charge than commercially available lithium batteries offer today.”
Mullen also announced on December 14 that it has a purchase order for 6,000 Class I EV cargo vans from Randy Marion Isuzu, a company based in North Carolina, with a value of approximately $200 million. Founder Randy Marion said in a statement, “There’s significant pent-up customer demand for Mullen to fulfill. I have many customers looking at me to find product for their companies.” A spokesman for the company’s commercial fleet sales confirmed the order to U.S. News & World Report.
Mullen Five Exterior Photo Gallery
A skeptical report from Hindenburg Research, the same company that issued a damning report on fuel-cell truckmaker Nikola, said in April that Mullen is “an aspiring EV manufacturer that came public in late 2021 via reverse merger. It has yet to produce a sellable vehicle.” Hindenburg said that this is CEO Michery’s first foray into the automotive space, after 27 years in the entertainment industry.
The Hindenburg report quotes Michery as saying in March of this year, “We’re going to be delivering our class 1 [van] vehicle in the second quarter of this year…[We] plan on doing that shortly and we plan on announcing that it is a very large company that is going to buy a lot of these vehicles…We’re doing it here in America. We’re doing it in Tunica, Mississippi.”
Michery said the client is “a major, major Fortune 500 company.” Mullen had earlier said that the vans would be manufactured by Tenglong Automotive of China and assembled in Mississippi. The company said it closed on the sale of the Mississippi plant in November.
Mullen purchased the remains of California-based CODA Automotive (an early EV contender, launched in 2009) in 2014 and is using its former facility in Monrovia, California as a battery lab. By acquiring CODA, Mullen also purchased that company’s considerable investment in its own lithium-ion battery technology.
The timetable for the actual production of the vans is unclear. Mullen also showed its FIVE EV crossover at the Los Angeles International Auto Show in 2021. The FIVE is supposed to appear in late 2024, with a 120-kilowatt-hour battery, 325-mile range and extensive onboard technology.
Makayla Brown, executive assistant to Mullen’s CEO, said in a telephone interview with USN&WR that the date for the delivery of the vans will be made at a later date. She confirmed the fourth quarter of 2024 for the release of the FIVE, and said the price is likely to be $55,000. Asked about the Hindenburg report, she said, “No response. You have to love freedom of speech in America.”
