BEV buys plant in Lafayette

LAFAYETTE – As one vehicle manufacturing company leaves Lafayette, another is rolling in to take its place.

Boulder Electric Vehicle LLC has purchased the 56,000-square-foot headquarters and garage in Lafayette of EarthRoamer, a manufacturer of luxury off-road vehicles that was dissolved in Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2009.

The two-year-old building at 1460 Overlook Drive, sold for approximately $5.4 million in March, according to public records.

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Boulder Electric Vehicle is manufacturing battery-powered cargo vans.

BEVA Holdings Inc. purchased the building from Roamer Holdings LLC. Carter Brown, Boulder Electric’s chief executive and agent for BEVA Holdings, a group of investors, said his company will manufacture the cargo vans at the plant in Lafayette but continue to work on some prototypes at its original location at 4747 26th St. in North Boulder.

Boulder Electric is in the process of moving operations to Lafayette, laying out assembly lines and setting up tooling stations. Each assembly line will require about 30 employees.

“We are setting up one now, but we have room for seven lines,” Carter said. He estimated that at full capacity the company can run seven lines with three shifts providing about 700 jobs.

Precision Plumbing of Boulder is one of the company’s first customers to sign up for the vans that go for about $100,000 each. But tax incentives, which vary year to year, can reduce the actual cost a customer would pay.

Carter said the vans will pay for themselves in about three years based on the current price of diesel fuel, which is ranging from $3.10 to $3.25 per gallon throughout the U.S.

“We are co-developing the vans with Precision, including the installation of an internal ladder system,” Carter said. “We expect to make our first deliveries in August and September.”

The company also has letters of intent to purchase vans from several major city governments, he added.

The utility and delivery trucks run on lithium-ion phosphate batteries that are expected to last 12 years or 300,000 miles. The trucks are expected to go for 100 miles to 120 miles on a single charge.

Boulder Electric has received some private-equity funding from individuals and is searching for more. Carter  also is in the process of trying to secure government funding, but he would not disclose specifics.

Still roaming

EarthRoamer filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy  in 2009 and was liquidated, but Bill Swails – designer of EarthRoamer XV-LT and XV-JP Xpedition Vehicles – has since teamed with former managers to buy the company’s assets, start a new company and relaunch the EarthRoamer brand.

 Swails joined forces with former production manager Eric Rexroth and former service managers Tyler Tatro and Mike Funari to form Xpedition Vehicle Service LLC. The company purchased the remaining assets of EarthRoamer.com LLC.

The company recently signed a lease in the Long’s Peak Business Center in Dacono at 5073 Silver Peak Ave. While it was waiting for that space to become available, it leased space at the former EarthRoamer plant.