Lordstown Motors Corp. gives media a peek under the hood

LORDSTOWN — Lordstown Motors Corp. is getting into gear.

But its first product, an electric pickup dubbed "Endurance," needs to make a splash in the market, executives said Thursday.

"We're not like a big [original equipment manufacturer] that can afford for one car not to do well. We have to do well, especially with the first one," CEO Steve Burns told reporters Thursday during a media event at the former General Motors Lordstown Assembly Complex.

"If we come out with the first electric pickup truck, I don't think we're going to be able to make 'em fast enough."

Burns has said he wants to make the 6.3-million square-foot facility the "epicenter" of a shift to electrification.

Having the keys to a well-equipped facility and a vehicle design that's already made pre-sales makes finding investors easier, said Mike Gibbons, partner of Brown Gibbons Lang and Co.

The Cleveland-area investment firm is now working to raise the more than $300 million in capital Lordstown Motors needs to put out the Endurance.

"A good number of electric vehicle startups have started and failed all over the world. This plant changes things," Gibbons said. "We're much farther ahead than Tesla was [at startup].

"Steve's already got a vehicle ready to go on the road."

Gibbons said he thinks Lordstown Motors Corp. represents a better opportunity for the region than if GM had allocated a new product to the plant.

"Youngstown, for the first time in my lifetime, is going to be in charge of its own destiny."

This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Lordstown Motors Corp. gives media a peek under the hood."