How we got here

Aaron and I are childhood friends who grew up in Montana together. We've always wanted to build something like this.

The idea started in 2023. Aaron was traveling in China and got fascinated by how widely electric utility vehicles were used — small, quiet, capable, doing real work in places the gas equivalents couldn't fit. Nothing like them existed in the US market. He brought back early prototypes that year.

In 2024, I joined him. We aligned on the final design for what would become the StepRanger All-Terrain and began importing in earnest, selling regionally in Montana and California. Real customers. Real conditions. Real feedback before we put a brand on it.

In May 2025, we launched the StepRanger brand and opened nationwide ecommerce. Since then we've shipped over 1,000 trucks to all 50 states.

The step is the point.

Most utility vehicles waste space. The driver takes up half the platform; cargo gets the rest.

We designed the StepRanger to flip that ratio. The operator stands on a step at the rear. The rest of the vehicle is for the load. Maximum cargo, minimum footprint.

It's why our trucks reach places a Gator or side-by-side can't fit. It's why the platform is 59 inches by 31 inches but the whole vehicle still threads down a single-track trail. It's why the truck is always ready to go — no cab to climb into, no door to open, no startup ritual. Step on. Move.

Direct from our factories. Not a trading company in sight.

The category we created has copycats now. They source through trading companies — middlemen who broker contracts between brands and factories the brands have never visited.

We don't work that way.

Aaron or I visit our factories in China every month. From final assembly through the supply chain producing the motors, controllers, and components that go into our trucks — we're on the floor. Problem solving. Ideating. Spending time with the people who build what we ship. We dine with the workers. We know their families.

We keep an independent engineer onsite for production QC. Every batch is checked before it leaves.

This isn't marketing. It's how the trucks come out the way they do, and it's why the alternatives can't match what we ship.

Two people. One mission.

John Harrington

Lives in Missoula, Montana with his family.

Aaron Jones

Lives in Sonoma County, California with his family.

When you email john@stepranger.com or hello@stepranger.com, one of us reads it. That hasn't changed since launch and isn't going to.