While Lordstown Motors has yet to unveil its all-electric Endurance pickup truck in the flesh, the startup has detailed some of its plans for the future, including some very ambitious production numbers.
During a recent interview with The Detroit Free Press, Lordstown Motors chief executive Steve Burns revealed the company will start hiring 600 workers next year to build the first examples of the Endurance pickup that it is in the process of designing. The company intends to initially build 20,000 pickups in 2021, but eventually is targeting a much higher output.
“We didn’t buy a mass volume plant like this and not plan to fill it up,” he said. “This is a gem of a building built for volume manufacturing. That plant was putting out more than 400,000 Cruzes a year. We think, because our vehicle is simpler to make, with only four moving parts, we think that plant is capable of putting out 600,000 vehicles a year.”
Watch Also: Take A Tour Of Lordstown’s Factory Where Its Endurance Pickup Will Be Built
Lordstown currently employs 70 people, most of whom are engineers, with 20 of them working in a secret design studio in Dearborn where the startup is planning models beyond the Endurance. The other 50 are working at the plant, re-tooling the facility once responsible for building the Chevrolet Cruze and making it suitable to build EVs.
The company plans to unveil the Endurance during an online event in June and wants to build at least 30 pre-production prototypes by the end of December. When the pickup is given the green light for production, Lordstown will start expanding its workforce.
Burns believes the Endurance will prove very popular: “I think we’ll have well, well north of the 20,000 spoken for. The demand side is super strong, I am starting to worry we won’t be able to make them fast enough.”
However, Lordstown won’t stop with the Endurance. Burns says the company plans to build other EVs, such as SUVs and a smaller midsize pickup, from 2022.
