Lordstown Motors has just announced that production of its fully electric pickup truck has begun. In fact, the American manufacturer, which has taken up residence in the plant formerly used by General Motors to assemble its small cars (Chevrolet Cruze, Chevrolet Cobalt, Chevrolet Cavalier, Chevrolet Vega, etc.), has only produced two examples of its electron-powered pickup truck, with a third one almost completed. These first three trucks are part of the first batch of 500 planned pickups.
FMVSS crash tests have been successfully completed, and EPA and CARB applications have been submitted as well, according to the manufacturer. Lordstown is also continuing its testing and certification phase. Don’t expect to see many Endurance pickups on the continent’s roads before the end of the year, as management of the fledgling automotive brand expects to deliver about 50 units of the electric pickup before the end of this year, while the next 450 vehicles are expected to be delivered in the first half of 2023, subject to sufficient capital being raised.
The Endurance pickup is expected to see its production rate increase over the next few weeks, a pace that will of course be tied to the supply crisis still raging globally.
“We will continue to build at a slow pace as we address pedigree and parts availability issues. We expect to increase production speed in November and December,” said Edward Hightower, Lordstown’s CEO, “Our certification and homologation processes are on schedule.”
Lordstown Motors also said it expects to begin the sales process before the end of the year, subject to full homologation testing and the required certification. It now remains to be seen if the Lordstown Endurance will be selected as a finalist for the 2023 North American Truck of the Year by NACTOY member journalists, with the vehicle still in the running as of this writing.
