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| Formerly | AMP Electric Vehicles (2007–15) |
|---|---|
| Company type | Public |
| Nasdaq: WKHS | |
| Industry | Transportation Automotive Aerospace |
| Founded | 2007; 19 years ago (2007) |
| Founder | Stephen Burns |
| Headquarters | Sharonville, Ohio, |
Number of locations | 4 |
Area served | North America |
Key people | Richard Dauch (CEO) |
Number of employees | 331 |
| Website | workhorse |
Workhorse Group (originallyAMP Electric Vehicles) is anoriginal equipment manufacturer and technology company headquartered inSharonville, Ohio,USA.[1] In 2025, it merged its operations with those of Motiv Electric Trucks, forming a new entity known asWorkhorse.[2]
It makes commercial electric vehicles andtelematics software designed for last-mile delivery. Its products include commercialelectric vehicles and the Metron telematics software system.
Founded in 2007 by formerLordstown MotorsCEO Steve Burns, it was originally known as AMP Electric Vehicles.
The company was formed the idea of converting passenger vehicles – originally designed with an internal combustion engine, gas tank, and related components – to electric drive. Its goal was to design an electric powertrain around a popular vehicle model, then convince the OEM that was already mass-producing that vehicle to sell it to AMP as a “glider” – a version without a drivetrain.
Over the years, however, two problems became apparent. First, the major automakers were hesitant to cooperate. Second, the passenger EV market didn't materialize quite as fast as AMP, and other manufacturers, had hoped it would.[3]
In 2012, The commercial vehicle powerhouseNavistar decided to sell off its Workhorse subsidiary, a step van chassis manufacturer, including the Workhorse factory in Indiana.[4] In March 2013, AMP Electric Vehicles took over Workhorse Custom Chassis, LLC's assets and began offering a range ofelectric vehicles.[5][6][7]
On April 16, 2015, AMP Electric Vehicles changed its company name to Workhorse Group Incorporated.[8] On January 4, 2016, the company was approved by Nasdaq Capital Market and its common stock started being quoted on Nasdaq under the symbol “WKHS” (NASDAQ: WKHS).[9]
In February 2019, Steve Burns, co-founder of AMP Electric Vehicles andCEO of Workhorse resigned from the company. President andCOO Duane Hughes became the new CEO of Workhorse.[10][11]
In November 2021 it was reported that Workhorse faced a Department of Justice investigation as well as a SEC investigation that was first reported in a September 2021 report by shortselling research firmFuzzy Panda who accused the company of fraud which was followed up by aCincinnati Enquirer report which found that top Workhorse executives and board members sold off $60 million worth of stock and that part of the selling occurred following interactions with postal officials which signaled their USPS bid was in trouble. The report also stated that Workhorse was being sued by some shareholders in the company, which accuses them orchestrating its USPS as part of an insider trading scheme.[12][13][14] On November 9, 2021, Workhorse confirmed its SEC and Department of Justice investigations in a regulatory filling which stated that the investigations were related to the trade of securities in the company leading up to the award of the USPS contract to Oshkosh.[15]
In August 2021 Richard Dauch was appointed CEO,[16] with the mission of resolving difficult issues Workhorse was facing and to transition Workhorse from a start-up to a leading manufacturer.[17] By the end of 2022 all the legacy issues had been resolved, such as the securities class action lawsuit,[18] the SEC investigation,[19] and got Workhorse debt free.[20] To prevent the factory being idle while the W56 was being developed, Workhorse entered into a 3-year contract manufacturing agreement with Tropos Technologies[21] and a supply agreement with GreenPower Motor Company where Workhorse will complete the manufacturing process and sell those vehicles as W4 CC's and W750's.[22]
On May 8, 2019,General Motors confirmed that it was in talks to potentially sellLordstown Assembly, its idle 6.2 million square foot manufacturing plant inLordstown, Ohio, to Workhorse Group.[23][24] On November 7, 2019, the newly constitutedLordstown Motors, of which Workhorse Group had a 10% stake, purchased the shuttered Lordstown Assembly Plant from General Motors. Workhorse CEO Steve Burns assumed the role of co-founder and CEO of Lordstown Motors.[25] Later that day, Workhorse Group issued a press release detailing a licensing agreement with Lordstown Motors for their W-15 pickup truck.[26][27][28] Burns resigned as CEO of Lordstown Motors on June 14, 2021.[29]
On June 12, 2024, Workhorse announced the divestiture of the Aero division.[30] Workhorse had developed and patented various drone technologies, focused on autonomous last mile delivery.[31]
A class 4 cab chassis battery electric commercial vehicle.[32]
A class 4 step van battery electric commercial vehicle, with 750 cubic feet of storage space intended for last mile delivery.[33]
Aclass 5 and 6 battery electric commercial vehicle, with 1000 cubic feet of storage space intended for last mile delivery[34] but also available as a strip chassis and cab and chassis.[35] Thebeam axle is provided byLinamar's eAxle system, stated to have superior performance and efficiency.[36] The W56 was unveiled at the 2023NTEA Work Truck Show. Production began in September 2023.[37]
In November 2016, Workhorse announced that they were working on an electrically poweredpickup truck, called the W-15. North Carolina'sDuke Energy stated that it would buy 500 of the vehicles, and the city ofOrlando also reported interested.[38] It was planned to have 460 horsepower and a battery range of 80 miles. A gasoline range extender was to supply further range.[39][40] In March 2020, Workhorse confirmed that it had transferred the W-15 pickup truck project toLordstown Motors through a licensing agreement. Lordstown Motors paid a licensing fee to Workhorse, and the truck will be produced in the future without the gasoline range extender.[41] The W-15 became the basis of theLordstown Endurance pickup truck.[42]
Workhorse was one of the finalists for the 10-yearUnited States Postal Service contract for theNext Generation Delivery Vehicle (NGDV) to replace 165,000[43] aging and outdatedGrumman LLVs that had been used by USPS since 1987.[44] In February 2021, the contract was awarded toOshkosh Defense.[45][46] Workhorse announced whatBloomberg News described as a "long-shot bid" to overturn the loss of the award.[47] On June 16, 2021, Workhorse filed a formal complaint with theUnited States Court of Federal Claims protesting the award of the United States Postal Service Next Generation Delivery Vehicle ("USPS NGDV") contract to Oshkosh Defense. However this complaint was dropped in September 2021.[14][48][49][50]
The prototype NGDV candidate chassis was modified and reused for both the W-15 pickup and the N-GEN delivery van for commercial fleets.[51][52] In June 2019, Workhorse obtained US$25 million to continue the delivery van project, which had a temporary name of N-GEN.[53] By November 2019, Workhorse changed the name of the delivery van from N-GEN to C-Series. In November 2019, Workhorse chose battery supplier EnerDel to provide up to 5,200 battery packs for C-Series delivery vans.[54] The C-series was intended to be built at a former General Motors factory inLordstown, Ohio.[55]
Workhorse developed a flagship electric van model C-1000 and started shipping it in the summer of 2021. However, after the initial sales, the company announced the truck would be redesigned to increase payload capacity. In September 2021 Workhorse suspended all deliveries of the vehicle and recalled 41 vans that were already delivered to customers with the company stating that it needed to provide "additional testing and modifications" to comply with US safety standards.[56][57] In November 2021 CEO Rick Dauch admitted during a conference call that he believed the C-1000 was unreliable.[58]
In December 2018, Workhorse announced that they would debut itsSureFly, an electricvertical take off and landing octocopter at the 2019North American International Auto Show. The SureFly would be built forair medical services, military organizations, agricultural customers, and for urban commuting.[59] In December 2019, aerospace companyMoog Inc. bought the SureFly program for $5 million. Moog planned to use the SureFly as a demonstrator for autonomous delivery vehicles.[60]
Workhorse began the development of a truck-mounteddrone called HorseFly in 2016. The HorseFly drone was developed in collaboration with defense contractor Moog (NYSE:MOG.A).[61] Unmanned medical delivery capabilities of the HorseFly was also developed in partnership with San Diego–based Unmanned Systems Operations Group Inc.[62]
Workhorse modified their HorseFly design to make a lighter but more rugged drone intended for making deliveries in hazardous environments like a conflict zone, or inaccessible areas like in a natural disaster.[63]
Current employees in management positions are as follows:[64]
Current members of theboard of directors are as follows:[65]
No, I mean... the W-15 [electric pickup truck] at Workhorse was born out of... we were making a new vehicle for the [United States] Post Office bid. And we thought, well, if we don't get the Post Office [contract], I had to be able to justify this risk. What else could we do with this technology? So that's where the pickup truck was born.
The N-Gen and Workhorse's W-15 pickup will share quite a lot, including their composite body construction. Burns told Car and Driver that they'll use the same batteries: Panasonic 18650-format cells, a "commodity" format that is roughly AA size and essentially the same as is used in the Tesla Model S and Model X, among other vehicles. But what's different is the range extender. While the production version of the W-15 will use a 1.5-liter three-cylinder BMW range extender, the N-Gen is going to use the 647-cc two-cylinder Kymco-built engine from the BMW i3, Burns said.
