Lordstown Motors has struggled a lot to get this point, but now it looks like it on the final stretch to begin customer deliveries of its Endurance electric pickup truck. The manufacturer just announced that the truck has received its US homologation, as well as its CARB, EPA and FMVSS safety certifications and is ready to reach customers.
The first batch of 500 trucks has apparently already been assembled at the Foxconn facility in Lordstown, Ohio, making for quite a change of fortune for the troubled company founded in 2018. The Lordstown Endurance was initially scheduled to enter production in late 2020, then its launch was postponed until September, 2021, when further delays were announced.
Then in October 2021, the news broke that Taiwan’s Foxconn, the company that manufactures the Apple iPhone, was going to take over the factory as it had automotive ambitions of its own. Foxconn agreed to stick to the plan of producing the Endurance in that location and now it looks like it has finally materialized.
General Motors was initially part of the project too, having invested $75-million in Lordstown Motors. However, towards the end of 2021, GM announced that it had sold off all its Lordstown shares and that it was no longer had a representative in the company’s board of directors.
After Foxconn took over the plant, it invested around $170-million in Lordstown, giving the company enough capital to start production. Back in August, the company said that it still needed “substantially more capital” in order to build the first 500 Endurance pickups, but this problem seems to have been overcome.
Edward Hightower, Lordstown CEO and President, said
I am very proud of the Lordstown Motors and Foxconn EV Ohio team for their hard work, grit, and tenacity in achieving this milestone. We are very excited to start delivering vehicles to our commercial fleet customers.
The Endurance will provide benefits to customers that use their vehicles for work. It optimizes key attributes of traction and maneuverability - with our in-wheel hub motors, safety - with our five-star crash performance, and value in the segment
What makes the Lordstown EV pickup unique among its rivals is the fact that it has four individual in-wheel hub motors – most rivals have no more than two motors and they are all inboard. Combined, the Endurance’s motors can make up to 550 horsepower and propel the vehicle to sixty in 6.3 seconds and on to a top speed of 118 mph (190 km/h).
The company is targeting a 200-mile EPA range from the vehicle’s 109 kWh battery pack that can be DC fast charged at up to 150 kW (20 – 80 percent in under 4 minutes); the vehicle has an 11 kW on-board charger that needs around 6.5 hours to replenish the pack to 80 percent. These numbers may yet change, because the official website still informs readers that specs could still change. Deliveries should commence by the end of the year.
