Workhorse Custom Chassis
Workhorse Custom Chassis was formed in 1998 when Grand Vehicle Works, LLC took over production and sales of General Motors’ popular P-series Stepvan chassis when GM dropped the product. GVW built a new 200,000 sq. ft factory in Union City for production, and based in based in Union City, Indiana, USA. Workhorse was sold to Navistar in 2005.
In 2005, Navistar purchased the Workhorse company, a manufacturer of step-van and motor home chassis, to seemingly re-enter the delivery van market. It appeared that the new subsidiary might also benefit by its association with a company whose history from the 1930s into the '60s included the popular Metro van. For a short time Workhorse offered an integrated chassis-body product called MetroStar. In Sept. of 2012, Navistar announced the shut down of Workhorse and the closure of the plant in Union City, Indiana, USA in order to cut costs.
AMP Electric Vehicles had been working with Workhorse and Navistar to develop an electric version of the Workhorse panel trucks. With Navistar's announcement to close down the Union City plant and divest of it, AMP stepped in and was able to purchase the factory and brand in 2012. AMP has previously repowered sports cars (Pontiac Sky) and other vehicles as electric vehicles.
Workhorse Custom Chassis began in 1999. As Chevrolet decided to get out of the RV chassis business, Workhorse took over those operations, beginning with converting the Chevy P30 Step Van/RV chassis into a similar Workhorse version called the P32. Later, the W series chassis was designed strictly for motorhomes. Workhorse quickly garnered market share in the industry be committing itself to improving the Breed. What began as a W20 chassis has now grown into W22, W24, and W25.5 variations. The powerful 8.1 Liter GM Vortec V8 is coupled to Allison transmissions and is now found in every Workhorse gas chassis. In addition to the popular W series gas powered chassis a rear diesel R series chassis and rear engined UFO series chassis were introduced (although not as popular as the W series) and Workhorse has now entered the class C market with a Chevy based chassis as well.
