Ohio EV startup Lordstown Motors unveiled its first electric van, 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 is powered by four hub electric motors that give you not only all-wheel drive, but the ability to independently deliver different amounts of torque to each wheel, which helps especially when driving off-road or in bad weather. terms.
But other than that, very little is known about Endurance. Despite presenting a prototype version on stage, the company quietly keeps virtually all relevant specifications. Not much was said about the battery, range, charging time, or performance during the one-hour event. Most of the time Pence was awarded for a campaign speech touting the Trump administration’s record of manufacturing support, all while failing that the White House has repeatedly attempted to end the federal electric vehicle tax credit and revoked regulations that pressure automakers to make cars cleaner.
Lordstown says it will begin delivering the truck in early 2021, which is an aggressive schedule for a company founded just a year ago. The company’s CEO Steve Burns said his goal was to have the first electric truck on the market.
“People are beginning to believe in electricity,” Burns said at the event. “We are going to beat everyone in the market.”
With that said, Lordstown Motors isn’t exactly starting from scratch. Burns is the former CEO of Workhorse, a commercial electric vehicle startup that has been around for a few years. Workhorse owns 10 percent of Lordstown Motors, and Endurance is based on the intellectual property that Lordstown Motors is licensing from the old Burns company. Lordstown Motors paid Workhorse $ 15.8 million for that IP, and Workhorse will earn 1 percent on each Endurance truck sold (for the first 200,000) and You are entitled to 1 percent of any debt or equity that the new startup increases.
Lordstown Motors also already has a place to build Endurance: the former General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, which closed in late 2018. The plant’s closure had become a favorite target of President Trump, saying the CEO of GM Mary Barra had made a “big mistake.” In May last year, Trump prematurely announced that GM was selling the plant to Workhorse. Before long, however, it was made public that a new company, Lordstown Motors, was being created to buy the factory and take on new outside investments without Workhorse’s luggage.
GM even loaned Lordstown $ 40 million to buy the plant. Counted burns Reuters In January, the startup was “weeks away” from paying off the loan. But when The edge Asked Burns about the loan in March, he said he “received a slight rejection for saying that” and that he “shouldn’t even talk about [Lordstown’s] financing aside from saying that we are on track with our financing objectives. “
Counted burns The edge Lordstown Motors needs around $ 450 million to reconfigure the plant and bring Endurance into production. However, the company did not mention Thursday about the progress of the fundraiser. Lordstown Motors has said it is seeking a loan from the same Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Technology Vehicle (ATVM) program that helped put Tesla on the map.
Counted burns The edge In March, he had met with DOE Secretary Dan Brouillette and feels that Lordstown Motors is “doing very well” for the loan, but that “in no way does our success depend on it.” Brouillette even attended Thursday’s event. But the DOE has not made an ATVM loan in years, and the Trump administration wants to cut it out of the 2021 budget entirely.
The Endurance is entering a market that is about to get very crowded with electric trucks. Startup EV Rivian, backed by Amazon and Ford, plans to sell an electric van and SUV starting in 2021. An electric version of GM’s Hummer will arrive in late 2021. Tesla plans to start building its electric Cybertruck in late 2021. The Ford F-150, the most popular truck in the United States, will receive an electric version starting in 2022.
Update June 25, 2:38 PM ET: Added Endurance Estimated Price.
