Not Feeling the Cybertruck Love? GM and Lordstown Motors Ask That You Consider Something Less Avant-garde
From the Mustang Mach-E to the Cybertruck in a matter of days. What a week it’s been. While the verdict is still coming in on Tesla’s, um, interesting take on an electric pickup, an auto giant and an upstart automaker that just bought a big assembly plant are happy to offer an alternative.
Of course, neither General Motors nor Lordstown Motors have a physical, production-ready pickup to show you, but many would argue Tesla doesn’t, either. Yet both rival EV pickups are on the way, the companies claim. One’s already taking pre-orders.
Announced this week, Lordstown Motors, which came to life earlier this year and recently purchased the mothballed GM Lordstown Assembly in northeast Ohio, is taking $1,000 deposits on the upcoming Endurance — its name for a conventionally styled crew cab electric pickup. Starting price for the Lordstown Endurance (seen above) is $52,500, with the fledgling company hoping to roll out the first examples in late 2020.
First, Lordstown will have to raise some capital. Retooling is expected to begin at the facility within the next two months, but the automaker still needs to secure $300 million in financing to get the operation off the ground.
Lordstown claims its truck will offer up to 260 miles of range.
Far fewer details exist for GM’s upcoming EV pickup, though GM CEO Mary Barra took the opportunity this week to provide an update on the model’s timeline. As reported by Reuters, the unnamed truck will go on sale in the fall of 2021 — probably beating Cybertruck to the market.
“It will be a very capable truck, I’m pretty excited about it,” Barra said of the vehicle, which will call Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly home. There’s a chance GM might revive the Hummer name for its upcoming EV.
Ford, of course, has its own EV pickup in the works. GM’s effort seems to be a direct response to this challenge from the top-selling truck maker, and Ford’s electric F-150 may well beat GM to the market. Not to be outdone, Michigan-based upstart Rivian also expects to have an electric pickup, the R1T, in driveways that same year. Starting at $69,000, the R1T offers up to 400 miles of driving range.
If and when the Cybertruck goes on sale, it won’t have the niche segment to itself.
[Image: Lordstown Motors]
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CVT transmissions and turbo charged 3 and 4 cylinders along with higher content ethanol gas might make me an EV convert. That might be the plan to make ICE vehicles so undesirable and unreliable that buyers flock to EVs. Seems that is the direction that Government regulators across the Globe are going toward.
Tesla won't have a niche electric pickup market to itself, but it won't be a niche market for long. The first generation will be niche vehicles. The second generation should be competitive, and the third generation may be dominant. The current players in light trucks can't afford not to be heavily invested in electric propulsion.