Motiv Electric Trucks has named James Griffin its new chief revenue officer (CRO). He has nearly 30 years of experience in sales and business development across a wide range of relevant sectors, including commercial trucking, fleet logistics, fleet management, and commercial fleet EV charging infrastructure.

He will be responsible for accelerating the sales of Motiv’s electric trucks and buses across North America. Griffin takes over from Motiv founder Jim Castelaz, who had been acting as the CRO and will now return to his longstanding role as Motiv’s chief technology officer.

“As our customer base transitions from early testing and pilots to scaling up their use of medium-duty clean electric trucks, James has a customer-solution mindset, which will be critical in accelerating adoption,” said Scott Griffith, CEO of Motiv Electric Trucks. “From selling big rigs at Paccar to leading fleet sales and leasing at Ryder and selling charging infrastructure at ChargePoint, James checks all the boxes we are looking for.”

Griffin’s Experience at ChargePoint

Griffin joins Motiv from his role as head of fleet electrification sales at ChargePoint, a leading provider of networked charging solutions for electric vehicles. He directed the North American fleet electrification growth strategy for national fleet sales, national automotive OEM partnerships, fleet partnerships, and transit, and eBus national sales. He managed a team of nearly 60 and was responsible for sales, delivery, business development, government relations, marketing, pricing, revenue management, training, customer expansion, and retention.

Griffin’s Other Business Experience

Prior to ChargePoint, Griffin served as vice president of business development at MHC Kenworth, North America's largest privately held heavy-duty dealer group. There, he directed a team of 40 in the national sales and business development organization charged with sales, leasing, and rental of heavy and medium-duty trucks and truck maintenance programs across multiple industries. He also served as national account sales executive at Paccar, where he was named the number one national account sales executive.

Griffin held numerous positions in account management, sales, and business development during his decade at Ryder Transportation. He ended up as national sales manager for maintenance/full-service lease, where he worked with local, regional, and national sales leadership in the Eastern US to drive sales to leading brands like Wal-Mart, Cardinal Logistics, True Value, Associate Grocers, Dunkin’, Coca-Cola, and Firestone.

“Motiv is the most experienced medium-duty electric truck OEM, and they have earned a reputation for quality and dependability among leading fleets in North America,” said Griffin. “Motiv’s 15 years of technological innovation applied across millions of miles is an amazing foundation from which to build.

Motiv Appoints New Board Member

Motiv appointed Desi Ujkashevic to its board of directors. Ujkashevic is currently a senior director at Apple and previously spent 31 years at Ford Motor Company in advanced technology development and global automotive operations.

“Desi has spent her career applying her deep engineering background to scale innovative automotive technologies profitably, safely, and efficiently,” said Matt O’Leary, executive chairman of the Board of Motiv Electric Trucks. “Her experience and expertise will be critical to Motiv as we evolve into a full OEM of the most technologically-advanced, reliable and sustainable electric trucks and buses for the largest fleets in North America.”

Fleet Acceptance of Motiv Trucks

Motiv said 10 of North America's largest 20 medium-duty truck fleets, including Purolator, Vestis (formerly Aramark Uniform Services), Cintas, Bimbo Bakeries, and other leading brands, have deployed Motiv vehicles. 

Motiv now accounts for 45% of electric step vans in California and 19% of step van deployments in the US overall. The company also leads the industry with repeat/follow-on orders; since its founding, 64% of vehicles have been delivered to repeat customers.