Lordstown Motors electric pickup set for debut later this month
LM CEO said its electric truck, the Endurance, will show off the week of June 22.
This week would have been the kickoff for the reimagined North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Of course the weather is near perfect. When the coronavirus pandemic designated the show's venue as a field hospital, many companies were forced to rethink their plans. That includes Lordstown Motors.
With plans to reveal its Endurance electric pickup truck upended, the startup decided on a virtual debut and now we have a real timeframe. LM CEO Steve Burns penned a letter published Monday to share the Endurance will bow the week of June 22. Preparations for the reveal are underway as you read this and we should see the truck in action, too.
LM planned to show a totally drivable prototype at the Detroit show so hopefully we get to see the startup's engineering at work via the video debut. That will include in-wheel electric motors, which could be a game changer if the company nails the design for a production vehicle.
Aside from the debut, Burns said things are humming along at the factory in Ohio, which most recently churned out the now-discontinued Chevrolet Cruze. The company is close to a semi-automated battery line, in-plant retooling starts this week for the body shop and stamping work will really pick up later this summer.
Although work continues to motor along, the coronavirus pandemic pushed a targeted first delivery date to next year. Originally, LM wanted to deliver its first Endurance pickups by the end of this year. Now, the company says the first trucks will be ready in January 2021. LM already received a handful of letters of intent for fleet purchases. If all goes well, the startup plans to build 20,000 pickups during its first year of production and eyes a goal of cranking out 600,000 vehicles in the future. Said vehicles could include a smaller pickup and an SUV, if Burns has his way.
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