Lordstown To Debut Endurance Electric Truck In Detroit This June

Needs a lot of federal funding to get the truck into production though.

Jan 29, 2020 at 11:26am ET

Lordstown Motors need at least $300 million to start production of its Endurance electric pickup truck by the end of this year at the shuttered Lordstown Complex in Ohio, acquired from GM for some $20 million.

We already know that GM agreed to loan $40 million to Lordstown Motors (with an option to increase the amount to $50 million), but that is just a drop in a sea.

According to media reports, the next step in securing financing might be a $200 million federal loan to retool the plant.

Automotive News reports that Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns recently met with Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and the company was holding additional talks with officials from the Energy Department's Loan Program Office.

""We think we are worthy of government help. We don't want a handout -- we want a loan," Burns told Reuters in an interview. "It's just going to be more jobs faster if we get it. We are viable without it.""

In the past, the Energy Department awarded loans to car manufacturers, including Ford, Nissan and Tesla under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program (pursued by the Lordstown Motors), but nothing new has come from the loan program since about nine years ago (2011).

The company is also "in advanced talks with a large strategic investor", which makes us wonder who it might be?

A drivable version of the Endurance electric pickup truck will be unveiled at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in June 2020.

Crash-tests will start in July, with production in November or December, but we are skeptical about the ultra-fast pace.