We founded Xos 5 years ago in a dusty, 100 sq. ft. warehouse in North Hollywood. The warehouse was once home to a different small business — an electronics company my grandfather started in the 1970’s. Our first job was to roll up our sleeves and clear out a truck bay’s worth of rubbish and rusted electronics inventory.
Late-night coffees, a pizza-only diet, and the dream of clean commercial transportation fueled the completion of our first vehicle product — ET-One — eight months later. Time named the electric semi-truck one of the best inventions of the year. But the more monumental moment for me was watching ET-One proudly squeeze through our narrow warehouse bay under its own power.
We had done it. We brought an electric vehicle to life. We moved one step closer to clean commercial transportation.
The memory remains one of my favorites in the Xos journey.
Over the years we developed a production version of ET-One and grew our team of dedicated engineers and technicians. We eventually outgrew our nook of the warehouse and occupied most of the 20,000 sq. ft. building. We were thankful for our small corner of the universe. The 1970’s office aesthetic. The close quarters. The unpretentious setting. It became our home away from away.
But the success of our vehicle technologies and expansion of our team created challenges. Employees shared desks. Parking spots were in short supply. Close quarters became a little too — well — close. It was time to find a new home!
A devoted multi-month search landed us 20 minutes away from our humble NoHo beginnings. Our new 85,000 sq. ft. headquarters is based in a pleasant neighborhood of Los Angeles’ Atwater Village. We’re thrilled to be in our new home where we have abundant space to continue our team growth and technological innovation. Our spacious Xos HQ now houses state-of-the-art battery production, powertrain test and prototype centers, and new vehicle laboratories. Oh — and an abundance of parking, which is in high demand for both vehicles and our mighty fleet of electric bicycles that our team uses to commute and to grab lunch in the neighborhood.
We look forward to our new building becoming home to more passionate individuals dedicated to our mission of clean energy. We have room for more brilliant minds looking to deliver unparalleled innovation and electrify our future. Our new HQ is sweet — but the innovation to decarbonize transportation that occurs within our walls is even sweeter.