Co-Founder Wayne Mathisen Transitions to Board Advisor After Fourteen Years Leading the Manufacturer’s Growth and Market Disruption
KANSAS CITY, Kan., June 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Orange EV today announced that Kurt Neutgens, Co-founder, President, and Chief Technology Officer, has assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer. The company also announced the hiring of Antonio Alva as Chief Operating Officer. The leadership moves come as demand grows for the manufacturer’s turnkey solution for yard operations which includes purpose-built EV terminal trucks, fleet chargers, and factory-direct service.
Neutgens’ work on Orange EV began before the company was founded. He spent more than a year analyzing commercial vehicle duty cycles to identify where electrification could deliver a meaningful operational advantage over traditional diesel equipment. Rather than beginning with technology in search of an application, Neutgens focused on finding an application where EVs could solve real-world operating challenges.
That search led him to the terminal truck.
Terminal trucks offered a uniquely strong starting point for electrification: highly repeatable routes and load profiles, controlled operating environments, and a clear operational drag from diesel trucks due to fluctuating fuel costs, high downtime, and maintenance and repair unpredictability. The result was a case that fleets could validate performance, quantify total cost of ownership, and quickly build confidence to move from pilot programs to broader fleet standardization.
Wayne Mathisen, who has served as CEO since co-founding Orange EV with Neutgens in 2012, is stepping back from day-to-day leadership after fourteen years helping build Orange EV from a category-creating idea into the market leader it is today. As CEO, Mathisen helped shape Orange EV’s strategy, business model, customer relationships, and disciplined approach to growth, helping turn an early vision for electric terminal trucks into a proven commercial platform serving fleets across North America. Mathisen will continue as a board advisor, providing continuity and strategic counsel as Orange EV enters its next phase of growth.
“Wayne has been indispensable to Orange EV’s success,” said Neutgens. “When we founded the company, we shared a conviction that electric vehicles, properly designed for the right application, could create a better way to run commercial operations. For fourteen years, every significant decision, direction, and method has been shaped by a partnership built on shared standards, trust, and commitment. Wayne led Orange EV from a germ of an idea in a garage to a transformative company that modernizes an important link in the supply chain. I could not have hoped for a better business partner, and I am deeply grateful that he will remain an advisor as we continue building on what we created together.”
Since Orange EV’s founding, Neutgens and Mathisen have guided Orange EV’s growth. Neutgens focused on the company’s technology, product roadmap, manufacturing strategy, service model, and operational direction. Under his leadership, Orange EV created the electric terminal truck market and established “yard dogs” as the most validated heavy-duty commercial EV application.
“Orange EV is built around a simple idea: yard operations need a better solution than diesel terminal trucks are able to provide,” said Neutgens. “From the beginning, our focus has been helping customers make their yards more reliable, more predictable, and more efficient. That does not change. Our customers depend on us for equipment, charging, and service to help reduce operational drag in the yard. I am grateful for the trust they have placed in Orange EV, and I am committed to continuing to earn that trust every day.”
In addition to Neutgens’ new role, Orange EV continues to build out its leadership team to address growth brought on by an inflection point in the terminal truck market. Antonio Alva brings more than 25 years of executive leadership experience across complex, multi-site industrial organizations. He most recently served as COO and President at parts manufacturer MPI Products, where he had P&L responsibility across engineering, quality, service, production, and procurement, the five functions he will now lead at Orange EV.
Known for aligning cross-functional teams around measurable operating and financial results, Alva has led multiple operational success stories in demanding industrial environments. He holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Florida.
“Orange EV is at a point where execution matters as much as innovation,” said Alva. “My focus is to align engineering, quality, service, production, and procurement around the same customer outcome: reliable equipment, dependable support, and an operating model that provides uptime rates far superior to what fleets have ever experienced with their diesel terminal trucks.”
Orange EV continues to scale, with more than 2,000 electric terminal trucks deployed across hundreds of customer fleets. Those vehicles have accumulated millions of real-world operating miles and key-on hours in warehouse, distribution, manufacturing, port, rail, and logistics environments. As operators evaluate the long-term cost, uptime, maintenance demands, and fuel-price variability of diesel equipment, the terminal truck market is rapidly shifting to broader operational standardization with EVs.
Orange EV’s mission remains unchanged: to help operators modernize their yard operations with a superior financial and operational solution that includes purpose-built terminal trucks, charging solutions, and a network of factory-backed service.
The leadership moves come on the heels of the company announcing the deployment of its 2,000th truck and a historic 600-truck order earlier this spring.
About Orange EV
Orange EV is the leading manufacturer of purpose-built zero-emission terminal trucks in North America. Manufactured in Kansas City, Orange EV delivers a turnkey electrification solution that includes Class 8 EV trucks, on-site service, and chargers including the Orange Juicer™ CCS1 battery-integrated charging system, empowering fleets to deploy yard operations with superior reliability in days or weeks, not years. Surpassing 33 million miles and 12 million hours of operation across more than 41 states, Canada, and the Caribbean, savvy fleets choose Orange EV for more cost-effective, predictable operations. Visit orangeev.com.
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SOURCE Orange EV
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