Analysis: Lordstown Week manufactures more questions than answers

LORDSTOWN, Ohio—After visiting Lordstown Motors Corp.’s sweeping plant in eastern Ohio and riding in a beta version of its flagship vehicle, Lordstown Endurance, two things became clear: No. 1, this battery-electric pickup truck has great traction and handling, and No. 2, the startup manufacturer itself still hasn’t found its footing in explaining why fleets should own it. Because of this, the weeklong behind-the-curtain event called Lordstown Week has created more questions than answers.

In what is perhaps the most important week yet for the company in its two-plus years of existence, that is not a good sign.

The company opened its doors to the 6.2 million-sq.-ft. facility, previously owned by General Motors, to woo investors and raise confidence among customers, partners, and the general public before starting commercial production in September. FleetOwner received an invite on May 17. It was the perfect opportunity to offset a barrage of recent negative publicity.

Before getting into the frustrating actions of leadership, some of which are no longer with the company, let’s open with some positives—and there were plenty.

The Good

For starters, the platform does boast impressive agility. During the ride-along portion of the tour I took on June 22 with other members of the media, the four beta models of the Endurance, and the prototype military vehicle using the same skateboard platform, showed just how much the four in-hub motors can handle on the road and off.

A few days short of one year ago, during the public unveiling of the Endurance prototype, CEO Steve Burns (who resigned last week, which we’ll get into) announced to the world that the Endurance “handles like a sports car.” How forthcoming Burns has been about the operations and sales side is up for conjecture, but after a six-minute ride in the Lordstown parking lot weaving and whipping around neon cones, this can be verified as true.

“One of the best points of the Endurance truck is that you really can’t lose control in any typical driving scenario,” explained our driver Robert Roth, a quality engineer at the plant. Part of the reason is that each of the four hub motors can operate independently, based on what the control system deems is best to maintain stability. Roth called this torque vectoring: “When you hit certain terrain or you’re hitting a turn and accelerating, [the control system] will redistribute power.”

Another key feature Roth pointed out while making hairpin turns was the use of rack-and-pinion instead of a half-shaft setup, which allows the Endurance to make tighter turns.

Each hub motor has a 110-kW output, translating to 600 hp overall. The 0-60 mph time is 5.5 seconds, according to the company, though we only got up to about 45 mph. The hub motor design is licensed from Slovenian company Elaphe and will be assembled at the plant from 90 parts. This includes the air disc brakes housed within the wheels as well. The production model will have “20% higher torque” and “7% higher peak torque,” according to VP of Engineering Darren Post.

LMC is dedicating 400,000 sq. ft. to hub motor production, making it the world’s largest, according to Rajeev Lamba, director of hub motors. To start the capacity will be 30,000 motors per year.

The hub motors will be validated for 100,000 miles and require little maintenance, Post said during the tour: “The hub motor itself will never need service.”

He then said the motor “doesn’t break,” explaining, “There's no oil, there's no pistons and those are lifetime bearings for the vehicle.” There is more complexity at each wheel, though, with coolant lines and high voltage cables, so if something were to go wrong (because even well-engineered things can break), it would likely take the pickup out of commission for longer than a broken wheel would.

On the plus side, the regenerative braking aspect of the motors puts less wear and tear on the brakes, allowing them to last two to four times longer, Post said. Lordstown will also allow users to customize the regen settings. Post noted that after engaging the regen, which occurs simply by taking your foot off the accelerator and then pressing down again, can make it feel like coming out of first gear.

Making each wheel a faux engine, as opposed to a direct-drive battery-electric powertrain configuration, allowed Lordstown to position the 1,300-lb. battery pack directly under the cab on the chassis to provide a lower center of gravity.

The battery packs comprise 6,048 battery cells, each about the size of a tube of lipstick, glued together. The first production line will be able to assemble 10,000 packs a year, while the other two lines are expected to churn out 30,000. Manufacturing components are currently en route and should arrive in July. The battery packs are backed by an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty.

Overall, the Endurance is expected to have a 250-mile range, 1,700-lb. payload and offer 7,500-lb. towing. The price is listed at $52,000, with incentives offsetting fuel and maintenance costs for a $52,200 total cost of ownership after five years.

Another positive is that on its first attempts, the Endurance passed its Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard full-speed frontal and side pole crash tests. The IIHS crash tests are scheduled in the fall, and LMC is expecting a five-star rating.

Because the production involves marrying a skateboard chassis, which includes the battery and hub motors, to the steel frame, Lordstown could conceivably offer a variety of vehicles ranging from light-duty vans to military vehicles.

The Bad

The roughly three-hour tour started with some remarks from newly appointed interim Executive Chairwoman Angela Strand.

“We're in a position of immense change in technology innovation, and I embrace change,” she said in a conference room full of media and flanked by a row of executives standing against the wall. “The leadership and board of directors understand the need for change in order to mature and grow an organization, particularly in a public company. My role as executive chair is to guide the transition for Lordstown motors as we embrace change. And the board of directors in the leadership team are deeply committed to our purpose, to bring the first full-size all-electric pickup truck to the market.”

Strand said the plant is “laser-focused on hitting our initial production target at the end of September” and identified three core values to get them there: team, technology, and transparency.

“Transparency for us starts with honesty, integrity, accountability, in the way we treat each other, and the way we interact with the media, with shareholders, with our partners, and our customers,” Strand said.

This sounds good and is what any company should strive to achieve, but LMC’s track record indicates Lordstown’s transparency is less developed than its traction system. And it’s been a muddy road.

A few weeks earlier, LMC, listed publicly on the Nasdaq as RIDE, acknowledged in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that full-scale production would not be possible without more funding. That quarterly filing also arrived late to the SEC, something the company had to acknowledge in a press release. A few days later founder and CEO Steve Burns and CFO Julio Rodriguez resigned.

Later that week, the company then had to amend comments made by LMC President Rich Schmidt to June 15 about having enough “firm orders” to maintain production through 2022.

In the Form 8-K filing on June 17, LMC declared: “Although these vehicle purchase agreements provide us with a significant indicator of demand for the Endurance, these agreements do not represent binding purchase orders or other firm purchase commitment.”

A March report from short-seller Hindenburg Research also accused LMC of overstating the value of pre-orders, among a host of other infractions, driving down shares of RIDE.

The Wall Street Journal then broke a story on June 21 that five LMC executives were found to have dumped $8 million worth of shares in February when the stock was riding high, prior to the public release of its earnings report in March. Schmidt allegedly sold his shares to invest in a turkey-hunting farm in Tennessee.

While this briefing would have been an excellent time to address concerns over all of these reports and display transparency, LMC kept everything technology-focused. Several times journalists were rebuffed for asking questions as simple as “How many employees do you have?”

In contrast, at the various tour spots, the subject matter experts did display a strong grasp of the engineering and the manufacturing processes, as well as a palpable amount of pride in the product. Many have brought decades of experience to their roles, hailing from Tesla, Cummins, and some even worked here before General Motors shutting the plant down in 2019.

Strand’s prepared remarks did include a terse explanation of the financial predicament that could impact the start of production, and which fueled doubt about Lordstown as a viable business: “In our last earnings call, Lordstown Motors experienced higher than expected expenses. These were largely resulting from higher parts cost. Our supply chain has been impacted by COVID. And as a result, our beta costs were higher, and our R&D expense was greater than expected… we are seeking additional funding to fully scale up capacity and further automate our manufacturing processes as we look to complete ramp-up to full production, and to launch the sale of our vehicles.”

The Unknown

The tour ended with a thrilling ride-along demo of a six-seater military prototype vehicle that hurtled poncho-wearing passengers over a motocross-style dirt mound and through a muddy pit. Despite bounding over rough terrain at high speeds, the ride did feel as smooth as physics would allow, a testament to the suspension and traction systems.

It was an exhilarating end to the tour, but after the adrenaline wore off, I was left with lingering questions as to what would make the Endurance compelling enough for fleets to invest in. After all, this is a fleet-focused vehicle, first and foremost. And while this may indeed be the first battery-electric pickup to become available, that’s not going to improve a fleet’s bottom line two years from now when there are more models from which to choose if they want to go the battery-electric route.

And fair or not, the Endurance will be judged against these zero-emission peers. Ford just released a trove of data and information on the fleet-focused Ford F-150 Lightning Pro, which starts at under $40,000 and comes with an 80-amp home charging unit, 11 power outlets (compared to three for the Endurance), several advanced driver-assistance systems as standard features, and a powerful telematics app to help find charging stations and monitor performance. That’s expected in 2022.

Like the Lightning, the Endurance will also have a front trunk, or frunk, but there was nary a mention of collision mitigation or ways to manage range anxiety. That doesn’t mean this pickup won’t have these features, but when asked specifically about ADAS, Lordstown’s public relations team did not respond.

There also wasn’t any mention of actual customers. LMC has so far made around 50 beta vehicles, and one of the test vehicles for the parking lot demo was wrapped in Harley Davidson branding. If customers have actually piloted the pickup, now would have been a great time to hear their thoughts.

Instead, all observers have to go off right now is Lordstown’s word, along with promising results from the SCORE San Felipe 250, an off-road motocross event in the Baja region of Mexico. The vehicle held up, though the battery did not have the endurance to go on after the first leg, due to the exhausting mountainous inclines. That shows the Endurance is rugged and perfectly suitable for a weekend of mudding in the country, but this was presented as a work truck.

It may prove a better business case than a gas-powered truck, but what makes this a good investment over electric trucks made by OEMs with proven track records, such as Ford, or Tesla with its Cybertruck or Chevrolet with its electric Silverado, which will have a 400-mile range (and GM’s Ultium battery, which will be made across the street from the Lordstown complex)?

So even after opening their doors, showing the nuts and bolts of the manufacturing process, from stamping to assembly, and the promises of transparency, these questions, and more remain. A new one is why Camping World, touted as the EV service network provider for Lordstown last December, decided to part ties.

“We are launching electric world with an amazing assortment from around the globe. @LordstownMotors will not be a part of that,” Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis tweeted on June 18.

This doesn’t mean Lordstown won’t figure it out. After losing a CEO and fending off allegations on every front right before such a big week, the odds were stacked against Lordstown Motors. They have roughly three months to get it together to meet their production goal, though the more important question isn’t if they can make a great pickup, which with the equipment and talent available, they should. Now, the true question is if Lordstown can provide fleet customers with an efficient tool that improves their business?

That is what will truly make Lordstown endure, but we are still left wondering.

Lordstown Week concludes with a virtual tour and Q&A session on Friday, June 25, 2021.