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Lordstown Motors gains 50,000 preorders for Endurance pickup truck

Submitted photo The interior of a prototype Lordstown Motors Corp. Endurance electric pickup truck is shown. The company announced Monday it has 50,000 preorders for the truck to be manufactured in Lordstown.

LORDSTOWN — Lordstown Motors Corp. has about 50,000 preorders for its all-electric full-size Endurance pickup truck and plans to expand west with satellite research and development and service centers in Michigan and California.

The company also announced Monday it is building and testing Alpha 2 prototypes of the truck and plans to build its Beta series prototypes in early 2021 on production lines at its plant in Lordstown.

“We continue to make significant progress across all fronts …,” said Steve Burns, founder / CEO of Lordstown Motors.

The company last month completed its merger with New York-based DiamondPeak Holdings Corp. and began trading publicly on the Nasdaq exchange. It expects to report earnings on a normal schedule starting with year-end results for 2020, but Monday released updates related to, in part, demand indicators, production markers and facilities and hiring.

PREORDERS

The company has received about 50,000 non-binding preorders from commercial fleets; that’s about 10,000 more than the company’s last preorder report in September. The average order size is about 500 vehicles per fleet.

Deliveries of the truck, which has a sticker price of $52,800 before tax incentives, are expected to start in September 2021 with full production ramping up throughout 2022.

TESTING

Lordstown Motors continues to prove out its technology with Alpha 2 prototypes. Production on 40 to 50 Beta series prototypes is set for next year. Those vehicles will be used for crash, engineering and validation testing.

The company also expects some of those truck may be sent to some initial customers for their feedback.

The Endurance has already achieved a Five-Star crash test rating via software crash simulation, according to the company.

SATELLITE FACILITIES

This week the company will open a satellite research and development center in Farmington Hills, Mich., that will include space for vehicle inspection and benchmarking, and lab testing, validation and prototyping.

The company “expects to access the deep automotive engineering talent pool and numerous automotive supplier partners that exist in the region” near Detroit.

Later this month the company plans to open a service center in Irvine, Calif., its first service center outside of Ohio. The company chose the location in Southern California because of “the favorable regulatory backdrop in the state, which is aggressively promoting more widespread adoption of electric vehicles.”

EMPLOYEES / PROMOTIONS

Lordstown Motors expects to increase its staff to 500 people by the end of 2020 and to 1,500 employees by the end of 2021. The company now employs more than 250 individuals in manufacturing, engineering, marketing, sales, facilities, human resources, IT, supply chain, accounting and finance.

Several senior members of the company’s management team have been promoted. Rich Schmidt, chief production officer, has been promoted to president; Shane Brown to chief production officer; and John Vo, to vice president of propulsion.

BATTERY LINE

Construction has begun on a 700,000-square-foot battery pack and hub motor production facility at Lordstown Motors’ 6.2 million-square-foot plant, the former General Motors assembly plant.

Completion of the first stage of this facility is expected in time for start of production in 2021.

news@tribtoday.com

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