LORDSTOWN – Constructing a vehicle assembly plant the size of the massive former General Motors facility in Lordstown now would cost upward of $3 billion, said the chief production officer of the plant’s new owner.

Rich Schmidt with Lordstown Motors Corp. also said today that getting the plant as it sits, including the equipment and robots inside, cuts at least a year off the time needed to get production there rolling.

Lordstown Motors officials, including CEO Steve Burns, invited the media to the plant today to discuss its future and plans to make it a hub of electric vehicle production in the Midwest, if not the U.S.

The company wants to begin making its full-size commercial fleet-style electric pickup truck by late 2020. Burns, who took ownership of the plant last week, said it will employ 400 to start, but he wants to get it 5,000 workers, which is about how many the facility employed when GM was running two shifts producing the Chevrolet Cruze.

“We think these are the jobs of the future,” Burns said.

For the complete story, read Friday’s print editions.