The 2021 Lordstown Endurance aims to be the first mass-production EV truck
Seven months after Lordstown Motors bought the former General Motors manufacturing plant, the developing EV automaker officially launched its Endurance pickup Thursday. Until this point, we’ve seen some photos of how the truck will look and saw details emerge on how the company plans to retool the plant to build its first vehicle, but this has been our first chance to find out more specifics about what is coming next year.
The $52,500 pickup will hit the market in 2021, as the company ramps up the 54-year-old manufacturing facility that, to date, had already produced millions of vehicles. What we see here is technically a prototype, though Lordstown CEO Steve Burns said at the truck’s reveal that they’re hitting the market at just the right time. What’s more, the company aims to beat its chief upcoming rivals, namely the Tesla Cybertruck, Rivian R1T and legacy automakers’ electric trucks, to market within the next 12 months.
On the styling front, the Endurance is unmistakable as an electric vehicle. Up front, it lacks a conventional grille for the sake of aerodynamic efficiency. The truck also sports slim headlights and taillights, while a character line runs around the top end of the grille, through the headlights rearward to the bed and another comes forward from the taillights to the front doors. As far as the overall profile goes, the 2021 Lordstown Endurance is fairly conventional to the trucks we already know, taking an approach closer to that of legacy manufacturers than, say, the Tesla Cybertruck.
Details on the powertrain
While Lordstown Motors rolled the prototype out on the stage for the first time today, details on its powertrain haven’t changed from what we reported before. The 2021 Lordstown Endurance uses four electric hub motors, working together to produce 600 horsepower and up to 2,000 lb-ft of continuous torque delivery. In fact, Lordstown is licensing the electric motors from Elaphe Propulsion Technologies. The company claims the Endurance has a 7,500 pound towing capacity.
As for efficiency, Burns said the truck will manage 75 MPGe, an equivalent far beyond ICE-powered trucks. Vehicles like the Tesla Model X and other existing electric cars manage about 90 MPGe, for perspective.
The 2021 Lordstown Endurance is also slated to get up to 250 miles of range on a single charge. We don’t know the specific battery size at this point, though the drivetrain design does allow for a large, low-mounted battery pack. Based on that figure, we estimate a gross capacity somewhere in the 120 kWh range. The photo above shows the unit mounted between the frame rails, mounted between the front and rear axles.
Beyond its fast-charging capability, which should be somewhere in the 150 kW range, the Endurance will also act as an on-site power source. That allows fleet customers — in large part for whom the company’s entire first full year of orders is already taken — to use 120-volt power for tools and other equipment. According to Burns, 20,000 trucks were already on the order books before the company even revealed the truck today.
As the company finishes reconfiguring the plant, we should see pre-production models roll off the assembly line in the coming months before they achieve full production next year. You can see the full reveal video here.
