This startup wants to sell you an adorable EV inspired by off-road racing – meet ‘Battle Approved Motors’

• Battle Approved Motors founder Chris James has worked with cars and extreme sports his entire life.
• After filming an Amazon Prime off-road series, he was inspired to create his own electric car brand.
• BAM hopes to eventually offer its own race series out in the Arizona desert.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Today, electric car startups are about as common as Trabants in East Germany. But they have an important task those cars don't: If they don't strive to be individual, they'll likely disappear.

For Battle Approved Motors, that comes naturally – the Arizona-based startup is crafting vehicles ready for all-electric off-roading.

Chris James, the founder and CEO of Battle Approved Motors, has been a car and sports enthusiast for as long as he could remember. His father, a Formula 3 driver, encouraged that passion at a young age.

"If I really wanted to big myself up, then technically, I am from a racing family because my dad was a professional racecar driver," James told Insider.

Living as a teenager in Thatcher-era Britain, James enjoyed car culture. "Like any normal guy, I've always been into cars," James said. "When I was in England, it was like the Volkswagen Golf was a huge thing; it was an affordable car you could do numerous things to."

After graduating from Kingston University, James worked as a producer at record labels and eventually became a film producer.

Later in his professional career, James was the producer for the Amazon Prime show called Mod Kids USA, a motorsport series focusing on racing small off-road buggies called "mod cars." While he was there, James saw an opportunity as the automotive industry began cautiously shifting more towards electricity. In the realm of UTVs, or utility-task vehicles, most vehicle options were gasoline-powered and required lots of engine maintenance.

James wanted to create a new EV brand offering a highly-capable off-roader, founding Battle Approved Motors in early 2019 and stylizing it as "BAM."

"The timing was just right to do this launch because we've just been thinking about this for probably five years," James said.

After raising some early funding, he hired a small team of engineers to begin working on the prototype design and getting an idea of how to create the off-roaders.

"In terms of where we're going with this and electric [vehicles], obviously we do have a crew that is far more engaged in technology than I am," James told Insider. "I am very much the visionary of the brand. I just go for wherever my passion leans."

For BAM's business model, James is leading with a rather sui generis approach. In the future, James hopes to offer a race series solely featuring BAM's vehicles. James sees this as the best way to showcase what BAM offers, and it's an opportunity for sponsorships and additional funding. The racing models will be highly utilitarian and composed of carbon fiber, but the plan is for customer models to be street legal in most states.

BAM has plans to offer three variants of its unconventional EV. The first model will be for its racing series and called the "r101," while models called the "s102," and "e103" are also in the works. The flagship is going to be the e103, and it'll offer up to four seats.

Since all EVs need to reside on a platform, Battle Approved has plans to produce its own Battle Board platform. But, James says depending on the funding, he would be interested in partnering up with other OEMs for cells and motors so BAM could set foot in the market sooner.

"We prefer to partner up than patent up," James told Insider. "We would far prefer to work with people who've been in the space longer than we have. It may make more sense to go [to contracted production] when it comes to the consumer model."

James doesn't want to give a definitive date and price for customer deliveries until more production plans materialize. Like most startups, funding will be the key to discovering how and when the vehicle will go about production from here on out.

Battle Approved Motors aims to enter an entirely new sector to EVs, but the team plans to take it one step at a time.

"We're very, very new," James said. "We're like the baby of the bunch, but [we're] really looking forward to where this is going to go."