Sam Krahn 
Lordstown Motors tried to usurp attention from the all-new Ford F-150 reveal yesterday (America’s best selling vehicle) by holding their own launch livestream only hours earlier for their EV pickup. Whether that really worked is up for debate, but the Lordstown Endurance truck was officially unveiled in Ohio along with a campaign rally-esque speech from Vice President Mike Pence. Strangely, we didn’t get much new information on the Endurance pickup other than seeing it in the flesh for the first time.
The Lordstown Endurance is the latest electric pickup, and adds to a long line of start-up car companies hoping to make a name for themselves in the market. The truck differs from its competition by using four separate hub motors rather than a centrally mounted electric motor. Lordstown claims this uses fewer moving parts than any other drivetrain, both EV and gas, which lowers production, purchase and repair costs.
Yet still, the Endurance will start at $52,500 (as of now) which is out of reach for fleet buyers, but could be palatable for those seeking a lifestyle truck. Currently, Lordstown Motors is only claiming 250 miles of range, while classmates like the Tesla Cybertruck and Rivian R1T will go much further, not to mention electric truck efforts from GM and Ford coming soon.
The Lordstown Endurance features a fairly traditional design in the electric segment, but carries the expected blocked off grille and techy lighting designs. Still, we see other companies using the electric architecture to do something their gas powered contemporaries can’t. The Endurance doesn’t look like it has much up its sleeve, but more could be announced later. The copper highlights on the hub motors do look nice, though.
Other than that, Lordstown revealed no other information on the Endurance at its reveal. We didn’t even see an interior or hear about any features of the truck. This is in notable opposition to Ford’s F-150 launch, which showed the vast array of features and technology the new truck will offer.
Instead, the startup automaker chose to focus on their eventual reopening of the Lordstown Production facility in Ohio, which General Motors abandoned in late 2018. Their hope is to bring more manufacturing back to the region, and employ just under 1,000 workers at launch. It’s worth noting Ohio is a very important swing state in the 2020 election, and Pence’s appearance had him speaking about Trump’s commitment to bringing manufacturing back. This made the whole event feel just as much like a campaign rally as it did a vehicle launch, especially when so little information was actually revealed.
Lordstown says the Endurance will be the first electric truck on the market, plotting an aggressive timeline delivering to fleet sales in early 2021 and customers in summer 2021.
