Ohio EV startup Lordstown Motors revealed its first electric pickup truck, the Endurance, for the first time today at an event that featured Vice President Mike Pence.
The truck, which is aimed at the commercial market, will start at around $52,500. It’s powered by four in-hub electric motors that give it not only all-wheel drive but the ability to independently deliver differing amounts of torque to each wheel, which especially helps when driving off-road or in poor conditions.
But other than that, very little is known about the Endurance. Despite unveiling a prototype version on stage, the company is keeping mum on practically all of the relevant specifications. Nothing much was said about the battery pack, range, charging time, or performance during the hour-long event. The bulk of the time was given to Pence for a campaign-style speech touting the Trump administration’s record supporting manufacturing — all while omitting that the White House has repeatedly tried to end the federal tax credit for electric vehicles and rolled back regulations that pressure automakers to make cleaner cars.
VERY LITTLE IS STILL KNOWN ABOUT THIS TRUCK
Lordstown says it will start delivering the truck in early 2021, which is an aggressive timeline for a company that was founded just one year ago. The company’s CEO Steve Burns said his goal was to have the first electric pickup truck on the market.
“People are starting to believe in electric,” Burns said at the event. “We’re going to beat everyone to market.”
That said, Lordstown Motors isn’t exactly starting from scratch. Burns is the former CEO of Workhorse, a struggling commercial electric vehicle startup that has been around for a few years. Workhorse owns 10 percent of Lordstown Motors, and the Endurance is based on intellectual property that Lordstown Motors is licensing from Burns’ former company. Lordstown Motors paid Workhorse $15.8 million for that IP, and Workhorse will make 1 percent on every Endurance truck sold (for the first 200,000) and is entitled to 1 percent of any debt or equity financing the new startup raises.
