#WorkhorseGroup

Yesterday’s news that General Motors is in talks to sell its mothballed Lordstown assembly plant to an affiliate of Cincinnati’s Workhorse Group was met with surprise and no shortage of doubt.

For starters, the company ended last year with 98 employees. It’s still a fledgling startup, eager to sell a range-extended light duty pickup alongside its electric step vans, some of which have found a home with UPS. Workhorse is chasing larger game, however, throwing its hat in the ring for the U.S. Postal Service’s lucrative next-generation van contract. Most observers believe Workhorse’s acquisition of the Lordstown plant hinges on securing that contract.

In a surprising turn of events, President Donald Trump broke a hot bit of news on Wednesday, tweeting that electric truck maker Workhorse Group has closed a deal to buy GM’s mothballed Lordstown Assembly plant, formerly home to the Chevrolet Cruze.

The news came by way of GM CEO Mary Barra, Trump said, and the automaker isn’t denying the plant sale.

Whether or not there is public demand for them, electric pickup trucks are on the way. Tesla is preparing one for market while another American company specializing in electric utility vans is doing the same. The Ohio-based Workhorse Group is putting the finishing touches on its W-15 pickup in the hopes that companies might want to add it to their fleet.

Workhorse already provides medium-duty vans to companies for ground delivery services, including the United States Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS. Its popular E-Gen platform mates to a traditional Morgan-Olson step-van body and uses a 60 kWh Panasonic battery pack, supplemented by a 647 cc internal combustion unit from BMW. The W-15 pickup promises to be a different animal but will remain targeted at Workhorse’s core of fleet-focused businesses.