Lordstown Motors says it has logged 50,000 preorders for its Endurance electric pickup truck. The company, which is concentrating on fleet customers, said the average order size is 500 vehicles. The 50,000 figure “does not capture interest the company has received from organizations that are not in position to be able to place pre-orders, such as federal, state and municipal governments and military fleets,” says Lordstown.

Lordstown Motors currently employs 250 people, and expects to double that headcount by the end of the year. By the end of 2021, it expects to have 1,500 employees.

The company has also revealed plans to open two satellite centers: a research center in Farmington Hills, Michigan and a service center in Irvine, California. The research center, which will open this week, will serve as a space for vehicle inspection, testing, validation and prototyping. The new service center, “combined with the company’s mobile service, will enable Lordstown Motors to service commercial users in the southern California region.”

Deliveries of the Endurance electric pickup are expected to begin in September 2021, and full production will ramp up through 2022. The ramp-up will include construction of a 700,000-square-foot battery pack and hub motor production facility at the Lordstown site.

Meanwhile, Goodyear released a video of some on-track driving tests of the Endurance taking place at the tire-maker’s Akron testing facility. The two Ohio-based companies previously announced a collaboration on tires and service.

Source: The Business Journal