Competition coming soon

[Willwork4truck]

From todays news: (begin copied portion of article)

Lordstown Motors reveals first beta build truck body, hits 100,000 reservations​

Production scheduled to begin in September​

“The Ohio-based startup has completed the first beta build of a metal body at the Lordstown factory it purchased from General Motors and expects to have it on a completed running truck this month.

Previous Endurance prototypes were made from composite materials, which will be used for the hood, but the structural part of the cab is robotically assembled and welded steel.

Lordstown currently has over 100,000 pre-orders for the truck, which starts at $52,500 and will initially be sold only to fleet and commercial customers. Burns doesn't yet know exactly how many will be converted to firm sales, but credits Elon Musk with pioneering the use of the reservation system to gauge interest in a new product while planning for production.

Production and deliveries are scheduled to begin in September, which means Lordstown will likely beat Tesla, GMC and Ford to market with the first mass-produced full-size electric pickup, while fellow startup Rivan is expected to start selling its midsize lifestyle-oriented vehicle in June.

Burns said now that the company has reached the beta manufacturing milestone and is 97 percent of the way to production, it may switch from reporting pre-orders to orders during the company's upcoming earnings call on March 17.”

(end of copied portion of article)

 

[Snofire]

I would say it will put pressure on the Big 3 to do more EV but not replacement it. More charging stations are going to be needed before it really catches on and the range. Nothing about towing capacity or anything.

 

[Rexx]

More competition is a good thing for consumers generally. Be interesting to see if they end up eventually selling to individuals instead of just fleet/commercial.

 

[silver billet]

Well it's certainly not going to win any awards based on looks

 

[wallyuwl]

Except for the front end it kind of looks like a Nissan Frontier. The front end looks like several different SUVs out there right now with the narrow headlights.

 

[Willwork4truck]

A bit more info gleaned from the net: https://lordstownmotors.com/pages/endurance
(Begin copied portion of article)

"...The Ohio-based startup is entering one of its trucks in the SCORE International San Felipe 250 race across Baja, Mexico in April.

Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns told Fox News Autos in an exclusive interview that the goals are to become the first electric truck to finish the race and to prove the capability of its unique design, which features four in-wheel hub motors that are the drivetrain's only moving parts.

The full-size electric truck uses a skateboard-style design that incorporates the battery pack and all of the running gear into a flat chassis. The company has demonstrated the packaging by attaching just a seat and a roll cage and taking it out for a wet, wild and very dirty test drive. It's also developing a van, RV and SUV that will be built on it.

The race truck will use the production drivetrain, which is rated at 600 hp and draws its power from a 109 kilowatt-hour battery pack. Burns said it will get a suspension upgrade and custom body with safety equipment, but otherwise remain stock."

 

[Darkrt]

Will not drive an electric unless that's all there is, and then.

 

[jkm312]

I can see an electric car move into mainstream transportation for the general public. It's a deliberate choice of the owner for their own reasons. They like new and different, environmental concerns, novelty, or just like to experiment. There are more and more now, but not nearly a majority. I don't see an electric truck getting any mainstream acceptance anytime soon. If they do catch on, then it seems to me it would start in the compact, light duty models.

 

[TravisJ]

It’s going to be a long time before electric trucks are popular. Long way to go before the range AND towing capabilities are acceptable.

Even even then it is going to be hard. I agree with the mid size truck segment being a good focus for brands, those type of buyers would grasp the concept much better.