Mullen Automotive, Inc., is an American automotive and

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...

manufacturer headquartered in

Brea, California Brea (; Spanish for "tar") is a city in northern Orange County, California. The population as of the 2010 census was 39,282. It is southeast of Los Angeles. Brea is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The city began as a center of cru ...

. Its products include passenger electric vehicles and commercial vehicles. The company is primarily involved in

rebadging In the automotive industry, rebadging is a form of market segmentation used by automobile manufacturers around the world. To allow for product differentiation without designing or engineering a new model or brand (at high cost or risk), a manu ...

Chinese

captive import Captive import is a marketing term and a strategy for a vehicle that is foreign-built and sold under the name of an importer or by a domestic automaker through its own dealer distribution system. The foreign vehicle may be produced by a subsidiar ...

s such as the Mullen Campus, Mullen One, Mullen Three, Mullen Go, and Mullen GT lines while still developing their proprietary Mullen Five EV. The company intends to field a luxury model first, then pivot to all-consumer electric vehicle models.

History

Mullen Technologies was founded in 2014 by David Michery, who is also its chairman and CEO. Mullen Technologies was combined with

Coda Automotive CODA Automotive Inc. was a privately held American company headquartered in Los Angeles, California. The company designed and assembled lithium-iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery systems for automotive and power storage utility applications, and el ...

to form the basis of Mullen Automotive. Mullen originally intended to launch the Dragonfly K50 luxury sports car, now called the Mullen GT and GTRS, in the U.S. by 2021. However , the company is still finalizing engineering. The vehicle is based heavily on the

Qiantu K50 The Qiantu K50 is an all-electric sports car designed and manufactured by the Chinese automotive manufacturer Qiantu Motor beginning in 2018 and ending in November 2020. Overview Unveiled at the 2015 Shanghai Auto Show, the production Qiantu K5 ...

. On June 15, 2020, Mullen Technologies announced a merger agreement with payments-as-a-service platform Net Element, Inc., which was completed in November 2021. This reverse merger resulted in Mullen becoming a subsidiary of Net Element, and Net Element changing its name to Mullen Automotive, Inc. On March 17, 2021, Mullen Technologies announced that they would open a factory in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

for the manufacture of their Mullen FIVE crossover SUV, with plans to sell these models as early as 2024. However, in November 2021, Mullen purchased a facility in nearby

Robinsonville, Mississippi Tunica Resorts, formerly known as Robinsonville until 2005,

instead, forgoing the Tennessee site. In February 2022, an article by Fuzzy Panda Research presented Mullen acquisition and bankrupt commercial EV manufacturer Electric Last Mile Solutions as an "EV Pretender – Passing Off Chinese Imports as "Made in the USA"; Booking Fake Revenue of Fully Returnable Products". In April 2022, an article by

Hindenburg Research Hindenburg Research LLC is an investment research firm with a focus on activist short-selling founded by Nathan Anderson in 2017 and based in New York City. Named after the 1937 Hindenburg disaster, which they characterize as a human-made avoidab ...

presented Mullen as one of "the worst lectric vehiclehustles" in recent history. In September 2022 Mullen purchased a controlling stake in

Bollinger Motors Bollinger Motors is an American automobile manufacturer of electric vehicles based in Oak Park, Michigan. History The automotive company Bollinger Motors was founded in Hobart, New York in Upstate New York in 2014 by its namesake, American e ...

, a manufacturer of EV pick-ups and SUVs, for $148.2 million This valued pre-revenue Bollinger Motors at $247 Million. In June 2022, Bollinger had little more than a month left of cash to cover operating expenses.

Vehicles

Mullen Go

The Mullen Go is an electric city car unveiled by Mullen Automotive in October 2022. Being essentially a rebadged Chinese Xiaohu FEV, the Go serves as a

last mile delivery Last mile in supply chain management and transportation planning is the last leg of a journey comprising the movement of people and goods from a transportation hub to a final destination. "Last mile" was adopted from the telecommunications indus ...

vehicle.

Mullen One

The Mullen One is a rebadged version of the

Wuling Motors Liuzhou Wuling Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. (doing business as Wuling Motors; ) is a Chinese manufacturer of automobiles, officially established as a joint venture by Liuzhou Wuling Motors Co., Ltd. (shortened "Wuling Group") and Wuling Automobi ...

G100 van. An unhomologated version of the Wuling G100 van, titled Mullen Campus, is sold for use only on private property, without the safety improvements added to the Mullen One.

Mullen Three

The Mullen Three is a three-seat, cab-over class 3 last-mile delivery truck with a 60/120Kw (rated/peak) Jing-jin electric engine generating 150/320Nm of torque. It is manufactured by Yuejin, a subsidiary of

SAIC Motor SAIC Motor Corp., Ltd. (formerly Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) is a Chinese state-owned automobile manufacturer headquartered in Anting, Shanghai. Founded in 1955, it is currently the largest of the " Big Four" state-owned car manu ...

, a state-owned enterprise of China.

Mullen GT and GTRS

The Mullen GT and GTRS are rebadged kit versions of the

Mullen FIVE

Mullen is developing a premium compact SUV titled Mullen FIVE.

Controversies

CEO compensation and awards

Despite Mullen Automotive Inc being unprofitable, Michery has continued with a base salary of US$750,000 per year and received a number of performance awards totalling over $40M . At Mullen's 2023 annual shareholder's meeting, Michery was granted further 2023 performance awards. On August 31, 2023, Michery, along with Wes Christian, appeared on Fox Business's Making Money show hosted by

Charles Payne Charles Payne may refer to: * Charles Payne (clergyman) (1830–1899), Methodist clergyman and president of Ohio Wesleyan University * Charles Payne (television personality) (born 1960), American Fox Business Network contributor and co-host of '' ...

to discuss the Mullen "Naked Shorting" lawsuit filed against

TD Ameritrade TD Ameritrade is a stockbroker that offers an electronic trading platform for the trade of financial assets including common stocks, preferred stocks, futures contracts, exchange-traded funds, forex, options, mutual funds, fixed income investmen ...

, Charles Schwab, and National Finance Services, in which Michery alleged illegal short selling of Mullen stock by the defendants. In the second half of the interview, Payne asked Michery about his compensation. Michery did not respond with an explanation before technical audio issues occurred. Charles Schwab has denied all of the charges. In a press release the following day by Mullen, the company responded to the question of $31M in General and Administrative expenses for the company's third quarter but did not answer the question about the CEO's compensation.

References

{{Automotive industry in the United States Car manufacturers of the United States Battery electric vehicle manufacturers Plug-in hybrid vehicle manufacturers Sports car manufacturers Electric vehicle manufacturers of the United States Motor vehicle manufacturers based in California 2014 establishments in California Companies based in Brea, California American companies established in 2014 Automotive companies established in 2014