International Entrepreneur George Gebhart Launches EV Truck Startup in U.S.

George Gebhart, CEO and founder of Voltu Motor, is a trailblazer in the electric vehicle (EV) industry, leveraging nearly two decades of expertise in engineering, innovation, and leadership to redefine sustainable transportation. 

A bio-engineer by training, George began his career conducting research in robotics and brain-computer interfaces (BCI) which led to his passion for electrification and technology-driven solutions​. With over 15 years of experience in electric drives and EVs, George founded Voltu Moto to revolutionize the EV market with an integrated, proprietary power train solution. 

Voltu’s innovations—such as the patented immersive cooling battery technology and the bidirectional inverter that enables the industry-first onboard fast charging—are a testament to his technical ingenuity and determination to eliminate barriers to EV adoption​.

Hear George's journey as he discusses how he began his startup in Argentina  and moved Voltu Motor to California where it will soon be introducing full production of its Class 3 EV pickup truck.

Transcript

Jeanne Gray: I am Jeanne Gray, publisher of American Entrepreneurship Today and host of the podcast series Experience Voices, where I talk with highly accomplished people who share the critical elements that led to their success.

The US remains the global center of innovation, attracting entrepreneurs like George Gebhart, founder of EV Truck Startup, Voltu Motor. As our guest today on Experienced Voices, George shares his journey that began in Argentina, where he innovatively designed and developed a commercial class EV pickup truck to fill a market void, George shares the factors that drew him to relocate his manufacturing to the US and the contribution Voltu Motor will make to the local ecosystem.  

George, welcome to Experienced Voices. I'm looking forward to hearing about your electric vehicle truck startup out in California. Let's start by sharing with the listeners more about your EV truck. I understand it's a class three. Explain a little bit what that means and, and why it's gonna be such a great entry into the marketplace in the coming year.

George Gebhart: Thank you, Jeanne. Voltu 3 is the first all-electric work pickup truck. It features dual models. It's all wheel drive. It can tow 17,000 pounds and surpass 350 miles of range. On top of that, we have of course, a variety of different versions. On this truck, but all of them, can do more than 4,000 pounds of payload.

So essentially, we're accomplishing and checking all the boxes for fleets and utilities and service companies to use these vehicles in their everyday use.   

Jeanne Gray: When you say utilities or service companies can you give a little bit of an example of what that would be? 

George Gebhart: Electric companies, water companies, gas companies, service providers you know, communication, all those fleets are using these vehicles every day to go on the road to service, you know, the infrastructure and to bring, you know, forth and back.

Goods that they need. There is no available electric truck in the market that can do that right now. This is the first one. 

Jeanne Gray: Well, that's what I was going to ask you is about your competition. When you were scouting out to come from Argentina to the U.S. were you doing it or did you do a specific analysis of your target market and the pricing of your vehicle?

George Gebhart: Of course, of course. We found a hole on the market that was not filled by any other OEM or automaker. That is the class three is medium tracks. So most of the auto makers are focused on luxury track and, Passenger vehicles and most of the electric truck manufacturers are focused on the big ones, right?

So the heavy, heavy trucks, no one is doing the super duty medium trucks that are so used here in the US and North America. So we found that hole in the market. , and we're, , working to fill it out. 

Jeanne Gray: Now, we had shared or spoke a little bit about the fact that you actually began in Argentina.

Share a little bit about your tech background that led you into electric vehicles. 

George Gebhart: Of course. First of all, I'm from Argentina. That's why we started there. I'm a bioengineer. I'm a technologist and an innovator. I started. Doing research for autonomous vehicles and brain computer interfaces and came to get really interested in artificial intelligence control drives, control systems, and decided that my way was go private knowing the university academic research system and started the company to develop the whole technology package for electric vehicles. Back then there wasn't the kind of offer that you have right now.

We developed the whole technology package from the battery modules to the models, the software stack, the inverters. We patented that technology. We have more than 20 worldwide patents on the technology. And did it all from scratch. There wasn't anybody else doing or was really hard to purchase off the shelf components at that time.

So that's why we developed all the, , important pieces and components that goes in an electric vehicle that are essentially what composed the electric powertrain of the vehicle. 

Jeanne Gray: So who comprised your original team? Because you came up with the concept, you did the research, but then you had to go from design to prototyping.

So other than yourself, what expertise did you rely upon?

George Gebhart: So essentially it's a mix of different engineering capacities. I'm a bioengineer. I always have a bunch of bioengineers, suppose it's affinity, but it's also the wide background that we have doing engineering: mechanical engineers, electronic engineers, electric engineers, electro-mechanical engineers, people working in mechatronics.

It's essentially industrial engineers. Of course, for the processes we have developed all our manufacturing processes in house. It's a mix of different specialties that you need to do something like this and something this complex, you need to know about chemistry, you need to know about physics, you need to know about mechanics.

You need to know about electric and electronics, of course that's why we have design and develop our own power electronics, all the components, all the boards, all the electronic boards. You need a bunch of different specialties working together in a multidisciplinary team for doing something like this.

Jeanne Gray: How long did it take you to move from design to a, a prototype or a prototype that actually you went out and, did the test runs in?

George Gebhart: It's not that you do just one prototype. You're prototyping each component all the time and testing those components isolated from the final application and then integrating that into the powertrain and they integrating that into the final product that is essentially tracked right.

So that took about five years of research design and going into full integration into an existing and real track that we started piloting with different companies. And then started our first batch of production and then we decided to scale up the company here in the us. That was always goal.

Right. 

Jeanne Gray: How many initial vehicles did you put out in Argentina? 

George Gebhart: So we put out about 20 vehicles. Some of them were pilots with big corporations like Coca-Cola beer companies, beer distribution companies, distribution companies, different kind of vehicles. That what we are doing here in the us.

Then we did contracts with private companies for deploying a bunch of them. And there was when we focus exactly on the class three and came to the US with exactly the same formula. That we were using in Argentina. 

Jeanne Gray: Well, this is a very big step to go from Argentina to the us and you're now, you're saying you've, you've been designing, developing, prototyping and introducing over a five year period of time.

So when you made your first step into the us, how long of a timeframe did you allocate to find your final destination in California? 

George Gebhart: So we worked during two years to understand where was the best place the best allocation and the best, way into the us is a bunch of different things that you need to understand first.

But it was around two years we decided that California was, And it is a special place where you have most of the EVs in the us. It is at the forefront of electrification. So we decided. Because of, practice and understanding that we need to be very near to our customers at the first stage.

So we say to come to California , to do , the landing and to store the manufacturing here, to have all the components and all the capacity near the customers that we're going to serve. That was the decision. 

Jeanne Gray: So share a little bit about your engagement with the local people because your final location is in Riverside, and I understand it's being instructed or the facilities being retrofitted with your manufacturing equipment.

So share a little bit about. How does someone from out of the US start talking with local people about their grand vision to produce in their area? 

George Gebhart: Yeah. You start , from the beginning, right? We contacted The California government, they direction us to different universities and different locations, and we're starting to talk with the University of California Riverside.

So the UCR from that point we. Took a time to understand if it was the right location. And we decided that the Inland Empire, that is just, , for knowledge. It's about, , 50 to 80 miles from the coastline here in Los Angeles. So. We decided that the empire was the right position for starting a manufacturing of the scale that Voltu is going to land here and started to talk to the different governments, the governor's office or the university that pointed, , to different people on the ecosystem and you need to start networking with them.

So we talked with, different municipalities and different government agencies, local government agencies to understand where was the right location. And we decided that , the city of Riverside, was , where we were going to land. And for us it was very special to have, that kind of reception from the local government is very important when you're coming from far, far away.

That you feel that you have people that is willing to do a partnership with you, right? You are putting an effort to make this region better, and they understand that, and we felt that. , that was, , the right position for us.   

Jeanne Gray: your type of capital intensive startup, you know, angel venture capital.

But when you're talking with the state government or the local municipality, do they bring in any type of financing to facilitate the, the building in their area? 

George Gebhart: No, no, not really. , and I don't think that they should, right? So they are the type of people that facilitates anything that comes into operational things.

So permits, how to do it be the first customers. So city of Riverside is purchasing electric vehicles. They needed to do that. So it makes sense for them to purchase vehicles from a company that is coming , to open a manufacturing site at the city. So that kind of deals, but they are not providing funding and we don't think that they should actually, you know, is the private sector that needs , to fund this kind of endeavors.

And yes, it's a capital intensive industry. But it's coming to a point of maturity and especially Voltu at a point of maturity that the capital that we need is exactly for manufacturing. We're not burning capital for developing the powertrain. We're not burning capital for developing the technology or understanding how it works.

We're going to invest capital. In manufacturing the powertrains and that portion is, where you have the most value of unelected vehicles and not necessarily the largest investment in manufacturing. So we think that we came out with a. Very good strategy and, is working for us.  

Jeanne Gray: So let's just speak a little, a little bit about the location and the, facility the installation of your equipment into the, it's a preexisting building. Understand it's, you're installing all of your manufacturing equipment, so that's underway. 

George Gebhart: That's underway. we know exactly , all the supplies that we need to start manufacturing all the equipment we have all the companies that are going to supply the equipment for starting the manufacturing are already there.

We have. We already did the negotiations, so it's just going to take couple, four more months to start shipping those equipment to the US So we are ready to start manufacturing by Q4 2025. That's the goal, and we think we're in the right time for that. 

Jeanne Gray: And, and how quickly will your first vehicles come off the line?

George Gebhart: So we're aiming to, to have those vehicles by end of year, so end of 2025. You know, but for sure Q1 of 2026, we're going to be shipping vehicles. Uh, it's that fast because as I said we know exactly how what to do. We already selected all the suppliers, all the manufacturing equipment, we just need to store manufacturing.

We're not going into that kind of scenario and strategy where you need to build a plant and you need to, . Deploy billions of dollars to store manufacturing. This is a different strategy, different, way of doing it.   

Jeanne Gray: Share a little bit about How you're changing your team in Argentina.

I imagine you worked with , a lean group of individuals, the engineers, but now you're basically going into the business of starting a, full scale manufacturer. So who, are you setting up in Riverside that is handling that? 

George Gebhart: We are handling that directly. So we have three different avenues for workforce development.

One is of course , the manufacturing workforce we're working with. All the main stakeholder in the region to train that people. And we have our own training program that is going to be executed with them, with those stakeholders. People is going to come to the factory to understand how to do it, and then we're going to pick from those.

But it's very important to understand that the people that we're training is not only for the manufacturing, it's also for other companies. And you know, to maintain and to understand the technology, who really believe that the Inland Empire and City of Riverside are going to become green technology hub.  

That's very important for us. And that was. Part of our initial decision of coming here on the second avenue, you have the engineering team. The engineering team, of course, we are bringing the key people from Argentina that understand and know what must be done for the technology and to keep developing technology and also keep understanding the technology that we have.

And we're working with the universities, the local universities, in the area to bring that people and you have very good programs for electrification and for electric vehicles in the region. So we don't think that's going to be hard , at the first few years at least you have the talent to do it.

And. At the end, on the executive side, the third avenue, I'm bringing my people from Argentina and handpicking those that I need from the us, especially in operations and manufacturing and people that can deal with the local workers. It's very important, so I'm handpicking those myself.

I'm not giving that responsibility to anyone else and any other company. We're not using third companies for doing that, 

Jeanne Gray: To put the financing in place, you need a chief financial officer for you to scale up the personnel. In California, you need an HR expert. So did you use your own CFO from Argentina to take you through the angel and the venture capital process , but in the US you'll use an HR person.

George Gebhart: So we have our own, our own HR person inside in house. And we're working with, as I said, with all the stakeholders putting together that, you know, HR recruiting team with the city, with the county, and with the different stakeholders that are, you know, helping us with that. Especially with the universities, but we have our, , that expertise is in house regarding funding.

Of course we have, I have my financial people, but I take care of funding myself as a CEO. That's my responsibility. So I go out there, talk to people, try to find who are the, you know, better people for, the company and start doing that as I've been doing for many years. Right. This is not the first run for TU and the company, even though we're coming from Argentina, the company was founded here in the US and we've been raising money from different stakeholders, different investors in the US and Argentina for a while.

So this is not the first run for us. But yeah, for, for human resources, you have your expertise, but you need to be in touch with the local entities and local stakeholders that can help you to make that cultural transition than, try to start from scratch.

Yeah, 

Jeanne Gray: right. I, I think, you know, you've probably had conversations about company culture, and especially coming from Argentina to the us that's a transition of the culture as well. 

George Gebhart: It is but there is not a big gap, right? So we're coming from a place where you know, I'm especially coming from a place where is, you know, all German villages that settled in a region way back, you know?

150 years ago, and it started from scratch. And that's kind of the same culture that you have here in the US with a mixture of different cultures coming together. So in this area, especially river size, big Latin , hub, big Latin population. And that is not a big gap between the cultures. From where we're coming in Argentina to the US and where we're settling in the us.

So we've enabled to manage that , very successfully so far. 

Jeanne Gray: Share a little bit about plug and play and what their role was in your step into the us. 

George Gebhart: Yeah, so plug of play was our first mayor , encounter with PCs and corporation here in the us, especially in the Silicon Valley area.

We understood what was the startup ecosystem in the US and how to manage that from scratch with them, and that was very special and very important because, , we kind of. It started our way to bring the company to scale and manufacturing. So one thing is to scale a software company, another thing very different. And that's why, , the kind of topics you are talking about is coming with a hardware company that needs to store manufacturing. So plug and play was our first steps on that. From that point, we knew. A lot of different corporations where we have conversations understood how to move in the US and do our first steps, especially for you know, supply chain manufacturing, understanding the operational scenario here in the us.

And starting knowing how , VCs, investors and all the community moves around that. 

Jeanne Gray: in addition to the introductions, , which are phenomenally important. Did they get into the business model with you? , did they have meetings with you to really vet what your plans were and, buy into the next step?

George Gebhart: Yes. So plug and play. What they do is they foster , networking and relationship ecosystem, and that's the way they accelerate you. On top of that, they have a special mentorship, so people coming to mentor you in different topics , that you need and you can understand how to move forward in the us.

So there was some counseling on that they have also service providers that are kind of in, in alliance with them that can help you. So yes, it was, a good and big step forward for us to understand how to do it here in the us. 

Jeanne Gray: , you mentioned the Green Hub in Riverside. Can you explain a little bit more about that?

George Gebhart: Yeah. We see City of Riverside and all the efforts that is going, , to back that . From the city and all the stakeholders to bring, you know, companies like Voltu this ecosystem. And we have the vision that City of Riverside and the Inland Empire are going to become a green tech manufacturing hub.

So this is different from Silicon Valley in the sense that, they are embracing the hardware technology and the manufacturing of that hardware technology in a different way. , and not only software. So we see it as this, you know, Silicon Valley of Green Tech manufacturing and that is a real effort towards that and.

the public agencies, the government and the private companies are coming together to develop that, you know, universities colleges schools. That is a real effort. We can feel that is a real effort towards that, and that's the vision, and we want to be a part of that, of course. 

Jeanne Gray: And, and share a little bit about zero carbon emissions.

George Gebhart: Zero-carbon emissions. So of course in the field we are electrification the big goal is s emissions. That is a big effort in California to accomplish that because, you know, air pollution is a big deal here. And electrification is. Not only a solution for cities and roads that have, , , a real big density of vehicles polluting the air, but also is the only way that you can use.

Renewable energy, right? So all renewable energy is going to electricity. So the only way of use that is electric vehicles for the roads. And we know that vehicles are at least 35% of carbon emissions. So electrification is a big deal for that. And you know, the grid is. Coming greener and greener as we speak with solar panels, wind hydro, all the green and clean energies that you have out there.

And, you know, the only real solution to the carbonized transportation is elected vehicle. So far, we haven't, haven't seen any, anything else yet. 

Jeanne Gray: we wrap up , share a little bit about the innovation culture, because clearly in Argentina you took on this ambitious challenge and now you're in California.

Can you give me a sense of, you've spoken about the universities being supportive, but what do you feel is the sense of the culture in innovation in California? 

George Gebhart: So, as I said, I think that there is some kind of similarities from Argentina to California even, the whole US in the sense that you have a lot of people that came from other places, especially Europe.

But you have, you know, here in California you have people from all over the world and that kind of mixed source of people that is coming here to. Make it different and make something. And they're coming with idea that they can revolutionize technology, they can revolutionize the way of living. it's a special life and it's something that has been installed many, many years ago.

And evolves during time to different, ecosystem and to different technologies, but it's always there. So I think that the kind of you know, melting pot that you have in California is what, you know, makes this region thrive above. Anyone else in the world actually. For developing technologies and developing innovation.  

Jeanne Gray: we hear a lot about China especially in the news in the last week or so about their breakthrough , in battery charging. how much do you keep your, ear to, the ground about what's happening in China? 

George Gebhart: A lot, A lot. First of all the western world, , you have the access to the technology.

It's not that China has a totally different revolutionizing technology that is going to make everything different so you have access to the technology. I think that the difference with China is the speed they are working. The speed of how they develop solutions that can really be used.

So a few years ago you went to, automotive show and everything was prototypes, everything was concepts. Now you go and you see three or four Chinese companies and they have the course that look like you know, the future, but you can't already purchase them. So that's a different, it used to take, , three to five years to develop a new platform.

With Chinese companies coming in, it takes less than a year. So there is a change on the speed of how they develop new things and new products. Not necessarily new technologies or new. scientific breakthroughs, but there is a change on how and the speed of how they develop new applications and new products that can be actually sell in the market.

So we're looking at that and we're trying to understand the approach of doing that. And TU has ever worked, , a little bit like that. Try to be lean, try to do it, , in a new way that we can actually make it without going through all the long-term process that big corporations need to actually deploy.

That that's, the startup way, the difference that China. Is doing it in a big scale. So startups usually are like that at the beginning. China is like that with everything and big corporations work like that. So it's like the startup, my mindset going into large manufacturing corporations. That's something new.  

Jeanne Gray: as we, wrap up, give a sense of where you see. Your company just over the next few years, my understanding is that you'll be producing somewhere around 14,000 vehicles in the coming years. So where is the ramp up in the terms of you have a three or five year plan? Because as we were just talking about competition to penetrate a market , and grab hold of it.

George Gebhart: Yeah, we're very aggressive, first of all. So we want to deploy between 14 to 20,000 vehicles in the next three to four years. That's our ramp up. A strategy and plan. We think that, , the demand is there. , there is no question that and we think we can do it, we can do it fast and we can do it efficiently.

So our plan is to, become the leaders on class three. Work pickup tracks in the next five years of course in the electric version. and the world is going , to that place and, you know it's just a matter of who is doing it right and who is doing it fast enough to grab the market as fast as possible.

That's what we think. And that's what we see. And, that's the vision.   

Jeanne Gray: Well, great. George , it was really interesting to hear your plans and, and how quickly you're gonna be having your vehicles on the market. So the timing has been great for you to be a guest on experience voices. So thank you again.

George Gebhart: Thank you very much an it was a pleasure.   

Jeanne Gray: You have been listening to the podcast series, experienced Voices. To hear more and subscribe, visit american entrepreneurship.com/podcast. Where you will also find a form for listener feedback.