Endurance Electric Pickup Truck: The Pride of Lordstown Motors
An old General Motors plant in northeastern Ohio could play a major new role in transportation. Now christened Lordstown Motors, the gigantic 6.2 million-square-foot facility has a much smaller focus these days – mass production of the Endurance Electric Pickup Truck.
Like the Atlis XT Pickup Truck that’s being developed out west in Arizona, the Endurance Electric Pickup has features and functions aimed at a working-class segment of buyers.
Since 1966, the General Motors Assembly Plant in Ohio had rolled out countless, compact Chevys and Pontiacs before being shuttered last year.
For the last decade of the plant’s historic run, operations were centered on the subcompact Chevrolet Cruze.
A new lease on life for Lordstown happened when an electric vehicle manufacturer called the Workhouse Group bought the facility last year for a reported $20 million specifically for its offshoot company called Lordstown Motors.
About Lordstown Motors
Lordstown Motors is headed up by Steve Burns, the founder and former CEO of the Workhouse Group, a Cincinnati-based company that builds electric vans and buses.
Workhouse is also said to be in the running to provide a new-generation fleet of vehicles to the United States Postal Service.
According to Burns, the Workhouse Group has a 10 percent interest in Lordstown Motors. The upstart company is licensing from Workhouse, the proprietary EV technology that’s making the pickup project possible.
Several key employees have previously worked at Workhouse and other auto companies, including Tesla, GM, Volkswagen, and Toyota.
The Endurance Electric Pickup Truck
Lordstown says its Endurance Electric Pickup Truck is the result of 10 years of research and development. Design wise; it seems to border on practicality and function rather than flash.
In fact, the company is actively courting commercial fleets such as utility companies as a big part of its market.
The no-fuel-burning, no-emission, all-wheel-drive truck carries a base sticker price of $52,500 (before tax credits) and boasts a simple design with very few moving parts.
It has a small motor on each of the four wheel hubs, and this allows for tight handling and improved traction (on a variety of terrains) and gives the truck a low center of gravity for better stability.
According to specs released by the company, the Endurance Electric Pickup Truck will offer plenty of power and muscle along with a few working-man features (like an onboard 12-volt, 30-amp power supply) that should appeal to those who use their trucks in their daily jobs.
It can be charged in 30 to 90 minutes, depending on the type of battery, and has a range of up to 260 miles.
Some other numbers for the Endurance Electric Pickup Truck: 2,000 to 4,000 lb.-ft. of torque, a 7,500-lb. towing capacity, 600 horsepower and a speed of 0 – 60 in 5.5 seconds.
Mike Pence Joined Lordstown Motors for EV Debut
The Endurance Electric Pickup Truck got a lot of attention in June when Vice President Mike Pence appeared as a special guest as the company unveiled its prototype.
Pence spoke briefly about the company and its truck before turning toward other topics that included President’s Trump’s policies on jobs and manufacturing and the administration’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.
“We are putting the American people back to work,” Pence said at the socially distanced event. “Today is one more example of the great American comeback.”
Burns announced then that Lordstown Motors already had more than 20,000 trucks on pre-order, and the first trucks are expected to roll off the line by the end of next summer. Goodyear has plans to integrate Endurance trucks into its fleet, he said, and other potential customers include utility companies around the country and several city governments in Ohio.
The return of jobs to the Lordstown auto plant has been a cause for hope and celebration for those who live in that area.
The little corner of the old Rust Belt has been nicknamed Voltage Valley because of the new motor company’s presence in addition to other new companies such as a battery manufacturing plant that’s the result of a partnership between GM and LG Chem.
While Lordstown Motors will employ just a fraction of the thousands that worked at the plant during its heyday and will be using just a portion of the work space, they are retooling for something that offers a lot of promise – what might just be the pickup truck of the future.
Become an Electric Vehicle USA Insider
Don’t miss any of the latest EV news in the USA. From pickup trucks to ebikes, we’ve got you covered.
Become an EV USA Insider below: