Zeus Electric Chassis signs first dealer

2025 Zeus Z-19 Class 5 chassis cab (Illustration: Zeus Electric Chassis)

Zeus Electric Chassis announced that One Stop Truck & Equipment of Sacramento, Calif., has signed on as the truck manufacturer’s first dealer.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled in partnering with One Stop Truck & Equipment,” said Zeus CEO Dave Stenson. “Our joint challenge is to cut through the current clutter in the industry’s EV transformation to serve a core customer with a product that doesn’t require them to completely change how they move operators, tools and materials to and from job sites and function while there. The upfitter industry has served these fleet customers for decades optimizing their work truck vocational products. Zeus and One Stop want to provide the ZEV chassis to build on that, not force customers to accommodate new chassis dimensions or cab styles.”

“Working at ‘ground zero’ of the transformation into commercial vehicle EVs, One Stop has a unique perspective on what our customers are demanding,” said One Stop Truck & Equipment General Manager Daryl Trueblood. “The Zeus Z-19 Class 5 product fits their needs. We have already had many discussions validating the pent-up demand for this truck and are super excited that Zeus has partnered with us in their final development stages to deliver it.”

Zeus Electric Chassis said the response the its truck received during the NTEA Work Truck Week event in Indianapolis in March and again during ACT Expo in Las Vegas in May is proof that there is strong demand for a Class 5 conventional-cab zero-emission (ZEV) work truck. Zeus said its U.S.-manufactured aluminum cab has design origins in fire truck construction methods.

“The enthusiasm shown by utility, state and municipal customers at the prospect of purchasing their familiar and preferred cab style mated with a ZEV platform was off the charts,” said Stenson.

To date, mandates such as California’s Advanced Clean Fleet (ACF) and other public and private fleet electrification goals have been unserved in this market. Zeus said it is exclusive in its planned 2025 offering of a pickup-cab-style architecture but with a zero-emission drive system.

Founded in 2018 in White Bear Lake, Minn., Stenson said Zeus is at the beginning of a period of electric work truck adoption as long lifecycles, state incentives and fleet adoption mandates create an environment for fleets to start their transition into EVs for select applications, especially where cross-country driving range is less of an issue.

Production is currently projected for lead units in the first half of 2025 and series production is expected to begin during the second half of 2025. Last year, Zeus Electric Chassis selected Edison Manufacturing and Engineering Inc. of Port Huron, Mich., to build the chassis cab work trucks.

Edison is a contract manufacturer that specializes in flexible, capital-efficient production of low volume mobility and mobility-related products, such as specialty vehicles.