- The new EV maker Lordstown Motors officially unveiled its first vehicle, the 600-hp Endurance pickup, at a live event today at its Ohio assembly plant.
- Lordstown says the truck will have a towing capacity of 6000 pounds and will be priced starting at $52,500 before tax credits.
- The trucks will be delivered to fleet customers first, in early 2021, with other customers getting it starting in late 2021.
Lordstown Motors unveiled its Endurance light-duty electric pickup truck at the Lordstown Assembly Plant in Ohio today at a live event attended by media. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette and Vice President Mike Pence both appeared and gave political-campaign-style speeches. Lordstown showed the truck in full for the first time but didn’t provide any new information on the truck’s engineering, although the company has promised it will be groundbreaking.
Lordstown
We’d already seen teaser images of the truck, but this is our first full view of what Lordstown says will be the first electric pickup truck to market in the United States. There’s limited room for experimentation in pickup design, but the Endurance’s narrow head and taillights, which fade to long strips of brightwork, à la Hyundai Sonata, make it look contemporary if slightly unusual. The Endurance has a slightly rounded nose and, characteristically of an EV, no grille.
The show car was wearing off-road-friendly Wrangler tires from Goodyear, and the wheels feature orange internal elements that are likely the four in-hub motors that Lordstown says will power the truck. Hub motor systems are regular features in electric concept cars, but none of those systems has yet made it to market. Lordstown says the Endurance will have a combined 600 horsepower from four hub motors and will be able to tow 6000 pounds. The company is targeting 250 miles of range and a $52,500 price tag.
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The launch took place in the Lordstown Assembly plant, which Lordstown Motors purchased from General Motors after GM shuttered the plant in early 2019. GM’s decision to close the plant drew the disapproval of President Trump, who tweeted as recently as March 2020 (four months after Lordstown Motors bought the plant) about his wish for GM to reopen it.
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The president’s fixation on the Lordstown plant and the importance of Ohio in the Electoral College for the 2020 presidential election may help explain why Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and Vice President Mike Pence were both on hand to mark the truck’s unveiling. The event was live-streamed on YouTube.
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Secretary Brouillette’s speech focused on energy independence. He said that the United States relies on China for 80 percent of the rare earth minerals needed for the production of the motors and batteries in electric vehicles. Brouillette said the Department of Energy is investigating the possibility of sourcing those rare earth minerals from reserves in Appalachia.
Car and Driver
Pence was in the Endurance’s passenger seat as it drove on stage and emerged to give a 24-minute speech. Pence opened his speech by referring to himself as a “truck guy” who is “in between trucks right now,” then went on to cover topics ranging from the USMCA to President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and the related economic downturn.
Pence said Steve Burns, Lordstown’s CEO, told him that the company expects to hire up to “five, six, seven, 800 people” for the Lordstown plant by the end of 2021. Lordstown said they have “pre-orders and letters of intent” for 20,000 Endurances, and that deliveries will start in the Summer 2021.
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Source: Motor - aranddriver.com
