Haller Group announces Quantron and Pepper comeback
Owner Andreas Haller aims to reinvent his group—and finally achieve success in the platform business for electric commercial vehicles. To this end, he is pursuing a new group-wide business concept called Fleet-Transformation-as-a-Service (FTaaS). Haller’s vision is to manage the drivetrain transition for customers: the group’s new core offering ‘enables the efficient integration of sustainable mobility solutions into the company with clear cost transparency and high predictability,’ the company stated.
The various components of the ecosystems designed for customers are being developed within new and existing units of the corporate group. The focus lies explicitly on battery-electric commercial vehicles, as well as fuel cell vehicles and corresponding hydrogen infrastructure. It comes as little surprise that the Quantron brand is reappearing in this context, as Andreas Haller acquired the assets from the insolvency of Quantron AG, effective 1 April.
Retrofitter Pepper becomes new Haller subsidiary
What may raise eyebrows, however, is that the Pepper brand now also belongs to the Haller Group. The retrofitting specialist filed for insolvency in 2024 and was subsequently sold to a Turkish investor. Apparently, this was only a brief interlude. While the exact timing of Haller’s acquisition of Pepper is not mentioned in the announcement, it most likely took place in 2025 as part of the group’s realignment. This is further supported by the fact that Andreas Hager, former Managing Director and CEO of Pepper Motion GmbH, states on his LinkedIn profile that he joined Haller in October 2025. He remained active at Pepper in a parallel role until November 2025. Hager is now introduced in the latest press release as the new CEO of the Quantron Business Unit.
The Haller Group states that the integration of Quantron and the acquisition of Pepper expand its portfolio with two key pillars: ‘the offering of new hydrogen and battery-electric commercial vehicles and the conversion of existing fleets.’ This offering is complemented by services in energy infrastructure, digital solutions, and finance and after-sales services. The individual business units are named as follows:
- Quantron – Zero-emission trucks and buses (battery and hydrogen)
- Pepper – Electric drivetrain systems for retrofitting trucks and buses (battery and hydrogen)
- Haller Technology – Energy storage solutions and infrastructure
- Haller Service – Financial services, leasing, insurance, and after-sales solutions
- Haller Defence – Special-purpose vehicles and security solutions
- ROQIT – Digital platforms, AI, and connected services
Haller promises future customers of its ‘FTaaS’ offering above all planning security and efficient operating models. The solutions are based on ‘innovative leasing and service concepts’ that free up liquidity for customers—by eliminating high upfront investments and through directly effective, lower total cost of ownership (TCO). The service division is set to ‘represent the DNA of the Haller Group,’ as stated by the company headquarters. This unit (registered as Haller GmbH) is deeply rooted in the company’s tradition and has made a name for itself over decades as a specialist for Iveco commercial vehicles and, later, as a service partner for the brands Iveco, Iveco Bus, Fiat Professional, Fliegl Trailer, and Quantron.
The Haller Group through the ages
At its core, Haller is built on a corporate history spanning over 140 years. Andreas Haller leads the company, founded in 1882, in its fifth generation. Originally based in Augsburg, the company—which initially focused on the sale and repair of trucks and agricultural machinery—relocated to a new building in Gersthofen in 1962. Under Peter Haller, the fourth-generation leader, the business was transformed into a professional commercial vehicle workshop for Iveco and Fiat Professional. Andreas Haller took the helm in 2001, expanded the portfolio to include buses, and founded Quantron AG in 2019 as a system integrator for electric commercial vehicles, independent of the Haller Group. In 2022, Haller Technology GmbH was established within the group as a specialist for battery solutions, storage systems, and other e-mobility components. Now, the traditional company is repositioning itself with a focus on zero-emission platform solutions.
“With more than 140 years of experience over five generations of the Haller family, the Haller Group is shaping the future of mobility in the commercial vehicle business: sustainably, digitally and globally, driven by innovative strength and entrepreneurial spirit,” the company stated with a touch of pathos. Andreas Haller himself is quoted as saying: “We have a responsibility to future generations to create solutions that have a real impact: clean air in our cities, sustainable industry, new jobs in the green economy and economic opportunities for entire regions. With our new structure, we are ideally positioned for strong international growth.”
Andreas Hager, now CEO of the Quantron Business Unit, added: “I am thrilled by what Quantron has built up over the past few years – a strong foundation of passion, innovative strength and a clear mission. The integration of pepper® adds additional expertise that makes us even more powerful, from new vehicles to the conversion of entire fleets. Quantron and Pepper together are the perfect symbiosis of vision, speed and impact.”
Business to remain ‘asset-light’
The Haller Group is internationally active, with projects and partnerships in Europe, the Middle East, North America, and Asia, according to its management. Its ‘asset-light’ business model enables it to operate globally while remaining regionally flexible, collaborative, and efficient. ‘Asset-light’ describes an approach in which companies maintain lean fixed assets and act primarily as integrators or licensees. True to form, Group CEO Andreas Haller is setting ambitious goals: the acquisition of Pepper underscores the Haller Group’s aspirations ‘the global market leader for Fleet-Transformation-as-a-Service,’ as stated in the announcement.
However, Haller previously struggled with a similar ‘as-a-service’ approach at Quantron. As a reminder: Quantron positioned itself in the retrofitting sector during its startup phase in 2019 but quickly evolved into a system integrator with rapidly growing international ambitions. The management repeatedly emphasised that Quantron did not want to become an OEM but rather a platform provider in the electric commercial vehicle sector. The business model was therefore less focused on producing and selling electric trucks and more on operating an ecosystem. However, financing this model became increasingly problematic, and by 2024, the situation had escalated dramatically. At the end of October 2024, Quantron filed for insolvency after a funding round collapsed. The subsequent provisional insolvency proceedings transitioned into regular proceedings at the turn of the year 2024/25. Of the more than 100 employees in October 2024, only a core team remained.
Haller acquired Quantron from insolvency in 2025
Ultimately, it was Andreas Haller himself who kept the company alive. On 1 April 2025, the remaining Quantron assets and its workforce, reduced to 35 employees, were acquired by Andreas Haller Holding GmbH as part of a transfer restructuring. The Quantron AG ceased to exist, and the company was absorbed into the new entity, which also includes the Haller Group. The former founder effectively bought Quantron anew. The Quantron brand was retained—though it has remained without official updates until now.
Andreas Haller, who publicly disclosed a severe heart attack in autumn 2024, linked his own comeback to that of Quantron. On LinkedIn, he posted an emotional statement on 1 April 2025. An excerpt: “In the darkest hours – both personally and professionally – I drew strength from my roots. I come from a family business that I proudly lead in its fifth generation. A company that survived two world wars. And from it, I’ve learned one thing above all: You never, ever give up. That belief carried me through. It carried all of us. And today, I can say with deep emotion: We made it. Quantron is free. The insolvency is over. We are alive. We are back.”
Thejourney of Pepper Motion
What about Pepper? The fact that Andreas Hager, the former Pepper CEO, now leads the Quantron Business Unit highlights the close personal ties between the two former insolvency cases. Like Quantron, Pepper was founded in 2019. Operating under the name Pepper Motion, the Denkendorf-based company had previously established itself in the retrofitting sector. Most recently, Pepper Motion specialised in zero-emission drivetrain kits for new and existing commercial vehicles, including battery-electric drivetrains for buses and trucks, as well as fuel cell drivetrain systems (produced in a small initial series).
After several strategic pivots, the last official news from the German electric retrofitter dates back to November 2023. At the time, Pepper Motion announced plans to establish a large production facility in India. Just weeks earlier, Pepper Motion had announced a shift in its core business: after refocusing from the German public transport sector to more international customers and truck orders in May 2023, the Denkendorf-based company completely discontinued its end-customer business in autumn 2023 to become a pure technology supplier. The workforce was ‘streamlined’ at the time. This step was justified by ‘ongoing dynamic situation on the utility vehicles market.’ Pepper Motion subsequently halted its own retrofitting of buses and trucks, as well as the development of entirely new vehicles. The company then described itself as a technology supplier for manufacturers, retrofitters and special vehicle builders.
Today, we know: the restructuring efforts were unsuccessful. In February 2024, Pepper Motion filed for insolvency. The company submitted the application to the Ingolstadt District Court. Officially, the company ‘ran into financial difficulties due to subdued customer demand in its core segments of electric buses and trucks,’ as the insolvency administrator stated at the time. By mid-2024, an unnamed Turkish investor had stepped in. Since then, Pepper Motion had faded into silence—until now: Pepper is back as a new subsidiary of the Haller Group.
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