Lordstown Motors unveiled two of its beta Endurance trucks on Wednesday, the first of 57 beta versions it has planned as it tries to defy the skeptics and begin mass production in September.
One of them even has a good paint job.
Lordstown is trying to start production in September to become what it says is the first company to mass-produce an electric truck, though the short-selling firm Hindenburg Research says that it’s nowhere close to that. Lordstown Motors is also former President Trump’s favorite carmaker, probably in large part because it let him do a photo op on the White House lawn.
That is to say that whether you believe Lordstown will do the thing and make the car is a slightly more complicated calculation than normal.
Things in Lordstown’s favor:
- It is not in Silicon Valley.
- It already has a factory in the form of GM’s old Lordstown plant.
- The betas do seem to be moving under their own power.
- GM’s involvement.
Things not in Lordstown’s favor:
- Trump
- Those fraud lawsuits.
- GM’s involvement.
- The fact that making EVs is slightly simpler than ICE cars but mass producing them is still enormously complicated.
All in all, I would say that the odds are still pretty long for Lordstown, as I think September will get here and Lordstown will roll some Endurances out of the factory and Lordstown will call that “mass production,” even if, for the first several months or years, it will be more like a trickle.
For it to succeed long-term, Lordstown will probably also need more money than it currently has. Lordstown will also need market demand for hundreds of thousands of electric trucks, something that doesn’t really exist at the moment. September’s going to be very exciting, though.