Lordstown Motors has announced its Endurance electric pickup truck has received its certifications from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California Air Resources Board (CARB), allowing it to kick off deliveries to customers.
At the same time, the automaker announced the first batch of 500 Endurance trucks have left the Foxconn factory in Ohio and are on their way to customers. Production is expected to ramp slowly as like many other automakers, Lorsdtown is working through supply chain constraints.
“I am very proud of the Lordstown Motors and Foxconn EV Ohio team for their hard work, grit, and tenacity in achieving this milestone. We are very excited to start delivering vehicles to our commercial fleet customers. The EnduranceTM will provide benefits to customers that use their vehicles for work. It optimizes key attributes of traction and maneuverability – with our in-wheel hub motors, safety – with our five-star crash performance, and value in the segment,” said Edward Hightower, Lordstown CEO and President.
After a promising start with a claim of 100,000 preorders and a public listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2020, things quickly turned south for Lordstown last year.
Hindenburg Research, which took down Trevor Milton of Nikola Motors, released a similarly scathing report on Lordstown claiming it was a “mirage” with “no revenue and no sellable product. The firm also claimed Lordstown has “misled investors on both its demand and production capabilities.”
A few months later Lordstown warned investors it might go out of business as it continued to burn through cash in its run up to production. That was followed days later by both the CEO and CFO resigning.
That all turned around when iPhone manufacturer Foxconn stepped in and purchased their factory in Ohio, later investing another $170 million into the company.
