Lordstown lights up $52,500 quad-motor Endurance electric pickup

There's another electric pickup truck in the mix ... or at least on its way to being in a mix of others that will arrive one day. Hopefully. Lordstown Motors has unveiled its launch vehicle, the Endurance. Aimed first and foremost at fleet buyers, the new all-electric truck relies on four hub motors for up to 600 hp and 250 miles (402 km) per charge. Unlike Tesla's off-the-wall Cybertruck styling, the Endurance shares its shape with the typical pickup – but it looks a little different inside the lines.

Lordstown, which is partially owned by Workhorse Group, promises a simplified truck design with the fewest moving parts of any motor vehicle out there. The entire powertrain is just four in-hub motors that double as the brakes. Fewer parts mean less maintenance and breakage, which mean lower operating costs, something that should help pique the interest of commercial buyers.

The four Endurance motors inside the 20-in wheels attached at the corners of the skateboard chassis help balance weight distribution for better handling. Lordstown goes so far as to say the truck handles like a sports car, though that's a claim we'd have to verify to believe, especially when we're talking about a truck that tops out at an electronically mandated 80 mph (129 km/h). The 5.5-second 0-60-mph (96.5 km/h) looks much zippier, though, and while not quite Rivian- or Tesla-grade, it's more than enough giddy-up to get a contractor on the highway safely on the way to Home Depot.

Along with the 600 peak horsepower mentioned previously, the Endurance e-engine quartet twists out 2,000 lb-ft (2,712 Nm) of continuous torque and up to 4,400 lb-ft (5,966 Nm) of peak torque, helping the truck tow up to 7,500 lb (3,400 kg). The motors also deliver torque-vectoring four-wheel drive.

Styling-wise, it feels like Lordstown's designers got a little too into their heads about what an electric pickup should look like to stand out from the ICE pack. The design meets our eye as the type of retrofuturistic pickup the 80s Hollywood sci-fi scene might have thrown out ... Marty McFly would look more than comfortable taking the wheel to speed away from Needles in 1985's version of 2015.

Still, the Endurance is downright conventional compared to that other electric pickup folks are talking about. Lordstown sticks to the classic truck profile, adding a bit of slope at the front. Where its designers get a little too hands-on, in our opinion, is in the black grooves running the length of the upper and lower sides, wrapping around into the headlamps and tail lamps. We think the design would look much more tasteful with plain, basic sides. In that case, the hovering face plate surrounded by beefy toothed intakes might present more of a commanding presence rather than just adding to the bumper-to-bumper busyness.

Lordstown hasn't revealed much about the battery that switches the lights on, outside of showing it sitting comfortably inside the skateboard chassis. The 250 miles of range come between fast-charges that take 30 to 90 minutes. External tools or appliances can tap into that battery via a 120V-/30-A outlet.

Lordstown plans to launch the US$52,500 five-seat Endurance in 2021. It will build the models at the 6.2-million-sq ft (576K-sq-m) Lordstown, Ohio plant it purchased from GM last year.

Source: Lordstown Motors