With production of the Endurance electric pickup truck halted due to the recall, Lordstown Motors appears to be transitioning to a next-generation vehicle platform developed in close cooperation with Foxconn.
The next platform “is becoming a bigger part of our company’s focus,” Lordstown’s fourth-quarter 2022 financial results presentation said, adding that Lordstown’s next vehicle “will likely source major components and subsystems” from Foxconn and will likely be built at the same time. The Ohio factory is called Endurance.
Lordstown bought that factory, located in the town of the same name, from General Motors after the automaker closed. But in 2022 it signed an agreement to sell the factory to Foxconn, which will manufacture Endurance under contract. The next-generation EV platform is also part of the deal, with Foxconn expected to use it for some of its own vehicles.
Lordstown endurance
Endurance production started late last year under that agreement, but Lordstown recently halted production before the recall that it was still working. Since then, the recall has been made clear to be due to a potentially faulty high-voltage cable connecting the inverter and motor. This can cause a power outage and make it impossible for the truck to restart after shutting down recall notice.
The recall affects only 19 trucks, some of which have already reached customers, representing about half of the vehicles produced to date. During the presentation, Lordstown said that by February, about 40 trucks had been completed or were in the process of being assembled.
“We have sold a total of 6 vehicles, in our initial planned batch of up to 500 units,” the company said. Lordstown had previously set a goal of delivering 50 vehicles by 2022, with 500 by 2023.
As CEO Edward Hightower explained in an update call, Lordstown plans to build 500 of those, but due to the need for hard tooling required to reduce production costs and the additional investment required needed to get there, it can suspend production later if it can’t find a partner to help scale up the electric truck.
Lordstown endurance
On a conference call with analysts, Lordstown “reiterates doubts about its ability to continue as a going concern,” Reuters second report. Chief Financial Officer Adam Knoll reportedly told analysts on the call that the company is also seeking “significantly more” funding to develop its next EV.
Changing the Endurance platform could be inevitable if there is a major change from the company’s original plans. Former Lordstown CEO Steve Burns suggested to Green Car Reports and others that deliveries to consumers and personal use products be part of the plan on the Endurance platform. But the company deviated from that plan with his departure. of a scandal in which the company inflated the number of confirmed orders.
Whether Lordstown exists or not, the Ohio factory will remain busy. Other plans for the plant include pear And India One electric cars and a self-driving electric tractor.
