A prototype of Lordstown Motors Corp.’s electric truck, the Endurance, caught fire in mid January while on its first road test in the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills, Mich., according to a police report.

The fire will not, however, delay the expected September production launch, according to a company spokesman.

A report from the police department there states the truck, according to its driver, Pirakalathan Pathmanathan, had just cleared testing inside the facility, and the fire started about 10 minutes into the road test.

Pathmanathan, director of power train for Lordstown Motors, told police when he noticed the truck was “driving weird,” he pulled over, and the truck started on fire from underneath, the report states.

It happened on a four-lane divided road just after 12:30 a.m. Jan. 13 in a neighborhood that appears to be all business and office space. No one was injured. The truck was towed and later released to Lordstown Motors, states the report, provided to this newspaper by WFMJ 21.

A fire report was not available Monday. This newspaper has requested a copy from the Farmington Hills Fire Department.

Lordstown Motors spokesman Ryan Hallett said the company doesn’t generally comment on testing conditions, but acknowledged the fire involved a “development mule … not a full Endurance pickup truck.”

“No one was hurt, and like all of our test findings, we do it to create a great product,” Hallett said in an email.

Hallett did not answer additional questions, except to write the company continues to plan for its production launch later this year.

A “development mule” is automotive industry jargon to describe a vehicle with prototype components used in testing and for evaluation.

Lordstown Motors opened a satellite research and development center in November in Farmington Hills. It’s space the company uses for vehicle inspection and benchmarking, and lab testing, validation and prototyping.

The company in late January announced it is targeting March to complete prototypes of the Endurance and remains on track to launch full production in September. Already, the company has begun metal stamping and welding for the 57 beta prototypes that will be used for crash, engineering and validation testing and customer feedback.

Production will happen in Lordstown at the former General Motors assembly plant, which Lordstown Motors bought in November 2019 and has been retooling to prepare for the launch.

Lordstown Motors has received more than 100,000 non-binding production reservations from commercial fleets for the Endurance, which has a sticker price of $45,000 after a federal rebate. The truck has four moving parts — the in-hub electric motors — and also a battery pack that provides a range of up to 250 miles, according to the company.