Battle Motors acquires Carrier Crane Co.

Los Angeles-based Battle Motors Co., a developer of electric vehicle (EV) technology, has acquired commercial vehicle original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Crane Carrier Company LLC (CCC). New Philadelphia, Ohio-based CCC has been manufacturing commercial vehicles for 75 years and has 180 sales and service dealers in North America, according to Battle Motors.

Battle Motors also describes CCC as “a leader in the vocational truck industry,” including as a provider of vehicles to the waste and recycling sectors. Other industries served by CCC include “infrastructure maintenance, ground support, multi‐stop distribution, agriculture, and oil and gas markets.” The combined Battle and CCC organization will have approximately 200 employees.

“We are combining the best of last century’s severe duty diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) technology with best-in-class EV technology to produce full electric trucks for the marketplace,” says Michael Patterson, CEO of Battle Motors and Crane Carrier.

“There has been minimal movement and very little fundamental innovation in this space,” states Patterson, adding,” The merging together of a traditional mainstay of the industry with an innovative and highly advanced technology company will generate a radical shift in this important sector of the transportation industry.”

Battle Motors was co-founded by Patterson, the founder of Romeo Power, along with Paul Marsolan, co-founder of information services firm InAuth Inc., and Nick Sampson, a co-founder of EV startup Faraday Future and a former head of vehicle engineering at Tesla.

Battle Motors says is intends to bring to market “the Battle-Ready Class 8 severe duty full electric truck [this] summer with 12 top tier municipal customers.” The Battle-Ready EV truck will offer “the same comfort, visibility and reliability as the CNG [compressed natural gas] and diesel-powered” trucks, “but with lower maintenance costs, reduced noise and zero carbon emissions,” states the firm.

The initial trucks will be designed for front, rear and automated side loader applications within the refuse and recycling space, available in standard and crew cab configurations.

“Battle Motors is nearly tripling the size of the production facility in New Philadelphia from 125,000 square feet to 350,000 square feet to increase production,” says New Philadelphia Mayor Joel Day, “It is a perfect fit into the advanced manufacturing initiative underway in our county and the Eastern Ohio region.”

Says Marsolan, “Our dealers and fleet managers are hungry for full battery electric vehicles, and I’m confident that we will deliver the best EV trucks in the space, just like we do with our diesel and CNG vehicles.” 

“We are elegantly packaging and integrating the best-in-class of today’s EV applied science with our own new innovations,” comments Nick Sampson. “This places our products at the forefront of EV technology to deliver customer focused breakthroughs in the space.”

Battle Motors says it plans for CCC to continue production of its class 7 and 8 truck chassis from the company’s manufacturing plant in New Philadelphia. Patterson says the expansion at the Ohio facility will involve making “capital improvements in infrastructure and strategic investments in new equipment and technology to support rapid growth in the EV space.”