Lordstown Motors is looking to the U.S. government to help make its new Endurance electric pickup truck a reality.
According to Reuters, Lordstown Motors is in “advanced talks” with the U.S. Department of Energy to secure a large loan that will help it retool the company’s assembly plant in order to begin production of the Endurance pickup later this year.
Lordstown Motors purchased the Lordstown Assembly plant from General Motors for an undisclosed sum back in 2019. The purchase included the building and the vehicle manufacturing equipment inside of it, although the plant still needs certain upgrades in order to start production on an advanced electric vehicle like the Endurance.
Speaking to Reuters, Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns said the loan is essentially “the same loan that Tesla got” in 2010, when the U.S. Department of Energy funnelled it $465 million through its Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. The program has not given out any new loans since 2011, however.
Burns also said that Lordstown Motors does not need the loan in order to start production of the Endurance this year, but said the cash injection “puts things on steroids” and will help it speed up and streamline production of the vehicle.
The Lordstown Endurance has so far attracted over 100,000 pre-orders after the Ohio-based manufacturer first began accepting reservations for the truck last year. The body-on-frame pickup is powered by four in-wheel hub motors, which together have a maximum system output of roughly 600 horsepower. The truck will be able to travel up to 250 miles on a full charge and will also be able to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in about 5.5 seconds. The Endurance will launch in Crew Cab configuration with a medium bed length and is priced from $52,500 USD, or $45,000 with potential federal rebates factored in.
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Comments
why don’t they issue bonds instead of begging the federal government? funny how these companies want government off their backs unless they need help.
Private investors are smarter than the government, particularly politicians.
America has been dealing with a private investor for the last 4 years and he definitely was dumber then most politicians!
This thing is a disaster in the making.
They will get government money and then go belly up after the people steering this ship take all the money.
How many Green Government funded companies are going to get away with this. We see it time and time again but no one stops it.
I think what they meant to say is they want a TAXPAYER loan. I’m always amazed that people want money from the government. Are people that ignorant to think there are some kind of magical trees that only grow in their state’s capital or in Washington DC? It’s like the $2000 stimulus checks that Congress is proposing. You just can’t create money that doesn’t exist without some long term repurcussions
And in a Donald Trump America only the ones at the top got all the money!
In Joe Bidens America – as long as they are gay, black, women, a human blob, identify as a potato – they will get their money.
What’s wrong with a private loan? Afraid electric vehicles won’t be the hit everyone in the media is claiming?
they also better be UAW because biden wants all business unionized
Why is this article here. Lordstown motors has nothing to do with GM.
Or does it???
no goverment handouts bev’s it is going to cost us a fortune for handouts for fast charge infrastructure we do not even have internet speeds that are fast enough for streaming in much of rural america.
Interesting article