Lordstown Motors announces 50K Endurance preorders, new facilities in Mich. and Calif.

LORDSTOWN — Lordstown Motors Corp. remains "on track" to begin production of its all-electric full-size pickup truck, the Endurance, in September of next year.

The electric vehicle startup, which last month finalized a $675 million public merger and began trading on the NASDAQ, has received 50,000 preorders for the Endurance, the company announced in a Monday release.

The company also announced plans to have 1,500 employees by the end of next year and 500 by the end of this year, as well as plans to open a California service center and a satellite research and development center in Michigan in the coming weeks.

Construction has already begun on a 700,000-square-foot battery and hub motor production facility inside its Lordstown plant, the company reported Monday.

"We continue to make significant progress across all fronts, and we are excited to reveal these developments with the investment community and future customers today," CEO Steve Burns is quoted in the release.

Sales

Early adopters are, on average, ordering 500 vehicles at a time, according to the company. The first vehicles will ship in September 2021. Production is expected to continue ramping up through 2022.

The company notes the existing preorders — which are non-binding — don't represent other interests in the Endurance from entities that are unable to preorder, like government and military entities.

When the company reached the 40,000 preorder mark in September, it announced the preorders totaled $2 billion in potential revenue.

Workforce

Lordstown Motors Corp. currently employs 250 people in manufacturing, engineering, marketing, sales, facilities, human resources, IT, supply chain, accounting and finance positions who are "engineering the Endurance and preparing the plant for mass production," reads the release.

That doesn't include 150 contractors currently helping retool the 53-year-old former General Motors facility to produce the Endurance.

But the company expects to have 500 employees by year's end and 1,500 employees by the end of next year, according to the release. Click here to see available jobs at Lordstown Motors Corp.

Several of Lordstown Motors' senior management team have been promoted: Rich Schmidt, a former Tesla executive who's been promoted to president; Shane Brown, who has 20 years in vehicle production experience and is now chief production officer; and John Vo, Tesla's former global manufacturing head, who is now vice president of propulsion.

New facilities, more testing

This week, Lordstown Motors plans to open a satellite research and development center in Farmington Hills, Mich., which will offer space for vehicle inspection and benchmarking as well as laboratories for testing, validation and prototyping.

The company is preparing its beta-series prototypes for crash, engineering and validation testing. About 50 of those models will be built at the Lordstown plant early next year. Some are expected to be sent to early customers for feedback.

The Endurance has already received a five-star crash test rating through software simulations, according to the company.

Later this month, the company also plans to open its first service center outside of Ohio, in Irvine, Calif., to serve commercial users in southern California. The location was chosen for its "favorable regulatory backdrop" and its statewide push for electric vehicle adoption, according to the release.

Back home, Lordstown Motors' battery pack and hub motor production lines are already being built inside its 6.2-million-square-foot plant, the former GM Lordstown Assembly Complex.

This 700,000 square-foot facility will produce the means to power and propel the Endurance and are expected to be completed in time for the Endurance to begin production in September 2021.

"When completed, Lordstown Motors expects the facility to be one of the largest of its kind in the United States," the release reads.

This story was originally published November 16, 2020 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Lordstown Motors announces 50K Endurance preorders, new facilities in Mich. and Calif.."