Hitachi Partnering With Workhorse

Workhorse Group Inc. a manufacturer of electric drone-integrated vehicles to the last-mile delivery sector, has announced newly formed strategic agreements with both Hitachi America, Ltd. and Hitachi Capital America Corp. (HCA).

The agreements call for Hitachi America and other Hitachi Group companies to provide, “an operational assessment of Workhorse’s manufacturing, operational and supply chain capabilities, benchmark to best-in-class standards and provide recommendations to Workhorse that support the company’s increased production requirements,” the announcement said.

Workhorse Group Inc., Cincinnati, Ohio, was founded in 1998 by investors who took over the production of General Motors’ P30/P32 series step-van and motorhome chassis. While the Postal Service has not announced anything officially, Workhorse is reportedly a finalist for the United States Postal Service (USPS) Next Generation Delivery Vehicles (NGDV) acquisition program.

The agreements call for Hitachi will leverage its smart manufacturing, data-driven digital solutions, and electric vehicle technologies, powered by Hitachi’s rapid-solution-delivery platform, Lumada.

In addition, Hitachi Capital America will assist in developing a national dealer network and will support Workhorse’s sales with vehicle financing options for both dealers and customers, including dealer floor-plan programs.

“This alliance with Hitachi comes at an ideal time for Workhorse as we value their best in class innovation and experience in ramping up production and enabling us in providing a complete solution to our customers.,” said Workhorse CEO Duane Hughes.  “In addition, we believe Hitachi can help the company drive customer orders as a well-known and respected player in the commercial leasing and finance industry, and we are looking forward to benefiting from their expertise.”

“We are excited to partner with Workhorse to help accelerate the roll out of their EV solutions and meet growing customer demand in North America,” said Hicham Abdessamad, chief executive, Hitachi Global Social Innovation Business and Chairman, Hitachi America, Ltd. “Hitachi is uniquely positioned in the growing commercial EV market with a set of innovative technologies and solutions to enable production capacity at scale, a reliable charging network infrastructure and a digital platform for intelligent vehicle routing and energy optimization.”