Lordstown burns cash, doubts over Endurance pick-up

May 28, 2021June 4, 2021 EV Central team 2519 Views

Another electric pick-up start-up is in trouble, with Lordstown Motors admitting it is running out of cash to commence production.

The developer of the Endurance mid-size in-wheel hub-motor pick-up has now revealed it could put up its production facilities and other assets as collateral to secure more funds.

Based in an old GM factory in Lordstown Ohio, it had claimed 100,000 pre-orders for the Endurance.

But that was debunked by the short-seller Hindenburg Research and the claim is now being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Hindenburg has already exposed false claims by another EV start-up Nikola Motor about its potential and progress.

In that case, Nikola sacked its founder and executive chairman Trevor Milton and axed planned production of the Badger ute.

But Lordstown founder Steve Burns said the plan to build 2200 Endurance pick-ups by year’s end had been cut to 1000.

Before that, Lordstown had planned to start production of the Endurance in December 2020.

The Endurance was launched by former US voce-president Mike Pence in mid-2020 and it was said that 20,000 examples of the 447kW ute would be built by year’s end.

“We are still in a position to ramp the Endurance, but we do need additional capital to execute on our plans,” CEO Steve Burns said in a statement. “We believe we have several opportunities to raise capital in various forms and have begun those discussions.”

COVID-19 and other issues were blamed by Burns for the delays and added cash burn and he also cited the cost of mandatory crash testing.

Lordstown Motors has been listed since last year after merging with a SPAC and raising US$675 million ($870 million).

But without a cash infusion it will have as little as US$50 million ($64 million) by the end of 2021.

Lordstown has had some other challenging moments of late; a prototype is said to have burned out completely 10 minutes into its first road test, while an off-road desert racer version of the Endurance pulled out of a 390km race after 65km because it was consuming too much energy.

Lordstown Endurance desert racing prototype

In addition there are fundamental questions about using in-wheel hub motors for an EV, as our own John Carey explains here.

The Endurance’s market appeal will also be challenged by the Ford F-150 Lightning, which launched last week with a starting price under US$40,000 ($51,000).

Endurance pricing is currently forecast to start at US$52,500 ($68,000).

Of course, the F-150 is only one of many potential pick-up rivals for the Endurance, as detailed here.