Lordstown Motors’ Ambitious Goal: Build the First Electric Pickup Truck
Lordstown Launches New Video Series About its First Electric Truck, the Endurance
Lordstown Motors Corporation has posted its first YouTube video under the rather appropriate username ofLordstown Motors. It's reportedly the first in a series of behind-the-scenes videos depicting the happenings at the Lordstown Motor plant in Lordstown, Ohio. Narrated by the company's CEO, Steve Burns, the video teases the 6.2-million-square-foot manufacturing plant while showing brief footage of a working prototype of its first electric pickup truck, the Endurance. This manufacturing plant operated as a GM factory from 1966 to 2019, pumping out 16 million vehicles, before being sold to Lordstown (the company, not the city).
Steve Burns articulates that the company'sgoal"is to build the first electric pickup truck in the United States and likely the world." Does "build" mean sell? There are definitely other players in the electric-truck space that have the same goal and that theoretically have already built electric pickups. However, none are yet available for purchase by consumers.
He continues, "Themissionof Lordstown Motors is to empower the working spirit. Everything we do is with the worker in mind—both our worker that's making the truck and the worker that's going to drive our truck. Our first truck is the Endurance. This is for commercial users. They demand a very tough, robust vehicle. Because we started with a clean sheet of paper, underneath it is like no other truck ever made. Hub motors have been a dream for a while. With a strong motor and a computer basically watching each wheel every millisecond, you're going to get better traction out of this setup than any conventional vehicle could ever offer. Lordstown, Ohio, has got a long history of vehicle-making. The people here are enduring. We've got the best-of-the-best. Our engineers have worked tirelessly to make a vehicle that powers the working spirit. It's dedicated to workers—tough, enduring people making a tough, enduring pickup truck."
