Hasta La Ideas

Following yesterday’s popular discussion on Americans and trucks, we got to wondering: Whatever happened to Via Motors? To refresh your memory, back in January we brought you the story of an American company taking fresh-off-the-assembly-line trucks from Detroit and turning them into E-REVs (Extended Range Electric Vehicles): Powerful yet environmentally-friendly 100-m.p.g. beasts of burden. The company estimated delivery of the first models by mid-2013, but that vague date period has decidedly come and gone.

We looked into it mostly afraid to find they’d gone belly-up, but were pleased to find they’re alive and well, and still leaping hurdles on their way to production. Vehicles have to be crash-tested to meet American safety regulations, and even though the trucks Via aims to produce are existing models that have already been crash-tested by their original manufacturer (General Motors), re-rigging them with electric motors requires a whole new crash test. So last month they smashed up a bunch of their cargo van models—and passed with flying colors. “The engineering work done to integrate the VIA’s electric technology has been exceptional and the vehicles have exceeded our expectations in all tests that were performed,” says Alan Perriton, president of VIA Motors. “We are now moving on to complete certification and begin mass production.”

To that end, just weeks ago Via brought their factory online in Mexico, near the GM factory that cranks out Silverados, one of the vehicles Via hacks up. Here’s a look at the facility:

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