Lordstown Motors builds first electric pickup betas
The startup company says it has 55 more beta trucks to go before it enters production.
Despite some controversy brewing about the company's fortunes, Lordstown Motors says it's full speed ahead for its Endurance electric pickup truck. On Wednesday, the startup revealed two beta models as it inches closer to production.
Lordstown didn't say if these beta models differ from the truck planned for production, but they look identical to the production-ready prototype the company showed last year. The first truck boasts a red, white and blue color scheme to flex its patriotism, while the second truck wears an orange and black scheme. The video above shows them moving under their own power, so that's a good sign at least, but it's not clear if the promised in-wheel motors are doing the heavy lifting yet.
The Endurance's lane is the commercial fleet segment, meaning this is not a Tesla Cybertruck rival. Lordstown says it has tens of thousands of preorders for the truck, though a damning report from Hindenburg Research -- the same firm that exposed fraudulent claims by another truck startup, Nikola -- said earlier this month that Lordstown's being a little sly with its preorder count, saying they're nonbinding. The company already pushed back on the report, calling it bogus, and we haven't heard much else since.
The electric truck was supposed to enter production this past January, but the company, which is now publicly traded, said the pandemic caused delays to the program. Now, it's scheduled to roll off the assembly line this September, with 55 more beta trucks to build before then. The final truck promises 250 miles of range.
