Lordstown Motors, the EV startup that has
bought GM’s former Lordstown Assembly Plant in Ohio, is expected to unveil its
Endurance electric truck later this month as part of an online event. Initially,
the company had planned to debut the Endurance at the Detroit Auto Show next
month but, as you probably know, the event got canceled because of the
coronavirus outbreak.
To sweeten the wait until the Endurance’s
unveiling, Lordstown Motors has posted a more realistic set of renderings on
its website than the previous ones repeatedly featured in the media. While
beauty is in the eye of the beholder, let’s just say the Endurance electric
truck doesn’t look half bad. Key styling elements include the sleek horizontal
LED headlights and taillights, closed-off grille which an identical structure
to the body panels, straight wheel arches, and black stripes that extend from
the headlights and taillights. The in-wheel hub motors are also visible inside
the 20-inch wheels, giving the Endurance an interesting, high-tech look.
We know that the
four in-wheel hub motors produce a total of 600 HP, enough for a 0-96 km/h sprint of 5.5 seconds and a governed top speed of 128
km/h. No info regarding the battery pack capacity has been disclosed yet but
Lordstown Motors claims the Endurance can cover about 402 km per
charge on the EPA cycle.The batteries can be charged to 95 percent capacity in
10 hours using a Level 2 7kW AC charger or 0.5 hours to 1.5 hours using Level 3
DC charging.
Since we’re talking about a pickup,
Lordstown Motors says the Endurance offers a towing capacity of 3,402 kg and a gradability of 30% at GVW (gross vehicle weight). The company
aims to build 30 pre-production electric trucks by December and 20,000
production models next year. That’s an ambitious target considering that the
MSRP is US$ 52,500. The Endurance will be eligible for the US$ 7,500 tax rebate, though.
