I started Bollinger Motors in an old diesel repair shop in upstate New York with six people and a conviction that a better truck was possible. We built it. Then we built it again, and again. Three generations. Hundreds of people. Thousands of parts. One commercial truck that made it all the way to production. Then the whole thing was gone. Sold. Out of my hands. For a while I thought that was the end of the story.

It wasn't. The trucks came back. The machines came back. The knowledge and the relationships and the hunger — all of it came back. I've been through a lot. Everyone who worked on this has been through a lot. But we wouldn't give it up for anything. This is in our bones.

Now it's time for a new beginning. A new story. A new direction. I want to make things again — real things, designed from conviction, built without permission. I want to work with young designers who are hungry and radical and haven't had their instincts beaten out of them yet. I want Bollinger Motors to be a place where serious creative work happens — in the studio, in the lab, in classrooms, and in the field. Let's get radical. And let's see where it can go.

— Robert Bollinger

The studio and the lab are where ideas become objects. Original vehicle and mobility design developed without commercial obligation and without production targets. Every project begins with a genuine design question and ends when the answer is worth showing. The original B1 and B2 prototypes live in the shop in Oak Park. The work continues there — hands on metal, real tools, real making.

The Bollinger Design Initiative puts direct support behind the individuals, teams, and grassroots organizations doing the most serious work in the field — solar car teams, Formula SAE electric programs, independent designers, events that move things forward. No equity, no strings.

The Bollinger Design Studies fund supports a faculty-led mobility studio within Carnegie Mellon University's product design curriculum. The Bollinger Design Scholarship recognizes one student each year whose work demonstrates exceptional engagement with mobility and transportation as a design discipline. Together they represent a permanent investment in the next generation of designers and engineers who refuse to separate form from function.