Richard Truett
7 min read
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DETROIT — After speaking with Mullen Automotive CEO David Michery for close to an hour, you get the impression he would be a formidable poker player. If there’s the slightest chance that he holds the winning cards, no matter what’s face up on the table, he’s not likely to fold.
And that’s the way Michery, 58, is approaching his financially challenged electric vehicle startup, Mullen Automotive of Brea, Calif.
Michery sat down with reporters from Automotive News and Crain’s Detroit Business on June 4 at Mullen subsidiary Bollinger Motors’ headquarters in Oak Park, Mich.
Michery didn’t flinch or give an inch under tough questions that probed his company’s finances and why he remains determined to crank up production of EVs when the business case that justified their investment has, in part, been upended by tariffs and changing government policies.
Dressed in a black T-shirt and weathered blue jeans, wearing a gold watch and showing a smattering of colorful tattoos on his arms, Michery doesn’t look like a traditional automotive CEO. He doesn’t act like one, either.
In the last 60 days, after Mullen stock twice sank to less than a nickel a share, Michery orchestrated two reverse stock splits to keep Mullen Automotive’s shares in Nasdaq compliance. He gave away an unused 675,000-square-foot plant in Indiana to a creditor — which Mullen got in 2022 in its $240 million purchase of bankrupt Electric Last Mile Solutions, another failed EV startup.
On June 3, Michery settled a lawsuit filed by Bollinger Motors founder Robert Bollinger, paying him $11 million and acquiring 95 percent of the company’s shares.
Michery essentially runs both Mullen Automotive and Bollinger Motors on the generosity of an unnamed benefactor who cuts a check for $1.5 million per week to the company and a $150 million line of credit that the company draws upon. That investor’s total cash infusion into Mullen is more than $800 million, according to court documents.
Michery believes the difficult market for EVs is temporary and his strategy is to wait out the tariff negotiations while positioning Mullen and Bollinger for big production increases. Virtually all Mullen and Bollinger vehicles contain significant Chinese-sourced components.
Here is an edited transcript of the interview with Automotive News Reporter Richard Truett and Crain’s Detroit Business Reporter Kurt Nagl.
A: A lot of those losses are noncash losses. There’s no excuse. EVs are out of favor right now. We have invested about $900 million since going public in 2021. The company has survived when no one else has. It’s a testament to our resiliency and our ability to withstand the most awful market conditions in the last 20 years. It’s no excuse for [our] performance, but if you look at the major OEMs, like General Motors and them shutting down the [Chevrolet] Bolt, that should tell you all you need to know. Backing off of EVs is something we haven’t done, and we believe that is a viable space. Our core investor is a multibillionaire who is committed to the company. It’s not going to go nowhere. I am a fighter. I don’t give up. I like to believe that you have to kill me to stop me.
