A Radford University alum recently launched a new electric vehicle company in the New River Valley to build maintenance vehicles for college campuses, golf courses and other facilities.
Inside a former elementary school in Dublin, Max Collignon runs Narro electric trucks.
“These will be used for park maintenance, golf courses, college campuses,” Collignon explained.
These trucks charge overnight using a three-prong outlet. They aren’t designed for highway use, or for high speeds, but they can carry up to a ton of material.
They cost between $20,000 and 40,000, depending on the build out. Collignon said the upkeep is cheap, compared with gas engines because there are no oil changes and few repairs.
“So from a maintenance perspective, the total cost of ownership of this vehicle, anybody with an electric vehicle, is significantly lower,” said Collignon, who graduated from Radford University. So did Narro’s Chief Financial Officer. Another employee graduated from New River Community College.
“We’re all coming out of the local school system. And our hearts and minds are kind of in this area,” Collignon said. They want to keep their company local and build a manufacturing facility here.
“Very often we get the impression that when students graduate, they feel they have to go somewhere else,” Collignon said. “So we want to make sure that they understand, ‘hey there is opportunities local. There [are] opportunities to be, to stay, in Southwest Virginia.’”
On Thursday, August 20, Narro will hand over the keys to their first customer, Pulaski County.
