Lordstown Motors has announced an exclusive licensing agreement with Elaphe Propulsion Technologies. Elaphe will develop the in-wheel motor that will be used in Lordstown’s upcoming Endurance pickup truck—the motors will be built by Lordstown employees at the company’s Ohio headquarters.

Initial setup of the 20,000-square-foot production line has already begun. Lordstown will begin using the new lines for beta testing and pre-production vehicles within the next six months, and expects to get to full production capacity in about nine months. Elaphe will provide engineering support, technical assistance and consulting services throughout the project.

“Our relationship with Elaphe goes back over a decade, and their commitment to Lordstown Motors and passion for the Lordstown Endurance is stronger than ever,” said Steve Burns, Lordstown Motors CEO. “The caliber of work they’ve produced is some of the best and most innovative in the industry.”

“While most vehicle manufacturers are focusing merely on catching up and competing with legacy electric powertrain technologies pioneered decades ago by pure-EV OEMs, Lordstown is making a giant leap forward by building its vehicles around the needs of their users and not around the traditional powertrain-integration-imposed tradeoffs,” says Gorazd Lampič, Elaphe CEO. “We strongly believe that the packaging, modularity, redundancy and advanced functions of vehicle control that Elaphe hub motors enable are key to delivering torque in the way a true 4WD should be done.”

SEE ALSO: Retooling a shuttered factory to build electric trucks: Q&A with Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns

Source: Lordstown Motors