Marty Gordon
Two Radford University graduates have launched a new electric truck company, which includes vehicles for college campuses, golf courses and other facilities. The founders of Narro Trucks, CEO Max Collignon and CTO Cullen Danilowicz, cite a narrow body that is 100 percent electric.
Thursday, they unveiled one of the company’s vehicles during a test run at Randolph Park in Dublin. The manufacturing facility will be located at a former site of an elementary school in Dublin.
Collignon graduated from RU in 2012 and Danilowicz in 2025.
“There seems to be a gap between the current UTV platform offerings and a small pickup truck. Our goal is to provide payloads closer to the pickup truck yet fit it in the same footprint of a UTV to maneuver in tight or crowded spaces,” Collignon said.
In addition, he said the battery electric drivetrain allows the company to increase operating efficiency as the operating cost is one-sixth the cost of an internal combustion equivalent.
“Additionally, the battery electric powertrain reduces maintenance cost for our customer, therefore, hopefully helping lower the cost to the American consumer with respect to the goods or services our customers provide,” he said.
Battery electric vehicle maintenance is minimal, compared to other alternatives, leading to lower operating costs over the lifetime of the vehicle. Also, there is no need for specialized charging infrastructure.
The trucks use a simple three-prong outlet, meaning they can be charged overnight.
Typically, these trucks aren’t designed for highway use, or for high speeds, but they can carry up to a ton of material. The price tag is between $20,000 and $40,000.
As part of this past week’s introduction to the world, Narro presented Pulaski County with one of its first vehicles.
Currently, the total employees on the company’s payroll is rather small.
“As we get further into the industrialization process, we will work closely with a manufacturing partner to assemble the majority of our vehicle content. We are still in communication with several different partners, with a final location dependent on the partner we move forward with,” Collignon said.
The company sees a robust future with a goal to build a company around what commercial operations genuinely need.
“Reliable equipment, lower operating cost and efficiency gains. We will also be continually improving our products based upon feedback from our extended field-testing partners to be able to provide better and higher capable vehicles in the future. We are already working on the development of the next platform with an even higher payload to satisfy some customer needs,” Collignon said.
CAPTION:
A new smaller truck produced by Narro Trucks is ready to take to the paths of the Radford University campus. Photo by Marty Gordon
