Excerpt:

Q 15: So let’s take it full circle then to the manufacturers themselves. Do you anticipate that you will become an OEM supplier to the vehicle and truck manufacturers?

Ian Wright:

“Yes, if you look at the way trucks are bought. The fleet operators don’t go down to the dealers and say: ‘Yes, I like the green one.’ That’s not how it works. They go to the manufacturers with a spec sheet, a requirement list, and it might say something like: ‘Well I want the MT-45 chassis, I want the Cummins ISB6 engine, I want the Allison 1000, I want the Marisol Axels. Part numbers this and that. And ship all that down to Spartan Motors and have them build and have the Umatilla-master group build the body that we like on the truck. Then put a vin number on it and sell it to us.’ That’s how they buy trucks. So those fleets can just as easily go to a truck manufacturer who didn’t make the engine or transmission and say I want all of that but cost out the Cummins / Allison and put in a Wrightspeed powertrain. So that’s how we’ll get into new trucks.”