The Lordstown Endurance electric truck was officially “revealed” today during a live broadcast press conference. You can watch if for yourself HERE. The 1-hour 14-minute press conference was a train wreck that I just couldn’t stop watching, although I really wanted to the entire time. We’re talking a late start, audio feedback, and even out of focus video. I’d spare yourself that kind of agony and just check out my notes below.
Don’t get excited though, as there were no broken windows or excitement of any kind like we saw in the much talked about Tesla Cybertruck reveal.
While an Endurance truck did look to drive on stage, we learned NOTHING about the truck and only even saw it from one angle. The event was a trainwreck from the start and just continued to devolve. Instead of a vehicle launch, it was a Trump Presidency campaign stop. A series of political speeches ensued, the culmination of which was a 30+ minute campaign speech for President Trump by VP Pence.
The Lordstown Endurance Hype Man Didn’t Deliver
The press conference started off, a few minutes late, with Youngstown State University President Jim Tressel. He honestly didn’t say anything that revealed anything, but he did show his support for the company and Ohio. No hype, no inspiration, and not barely a hint at the vehicle that was about to be revealed.
Next up Tressels introduced Erin Spring, Director of New Ventures at Goodyear Tires. She let us know the Lordstown Endurance electric pickup would have Goodyear Tires on it, but not much else.
Then it was back to more from Tressels, and in the middle of his speech, we also got to watch yet another short film about the GM factory that Lordstown Motors has taken over. Just more hype about saving the massive facility and keeping jobs in Ohio.
If Coach Tressels was supposed to be the hype man, he failed!
Lordstown Motor’s CEO Steps Up To The Mic
Next up was Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns. He stood on a basic stage with a black backdrop, a large American flag, and a neon Lordstown Motors sign. Then he droned on about a ton of hype that the company has already touted about the truck, but gave no concrete information or insights into the truck.
Burns said things like; “We will be the best pickup truck ever made,” “Safest pickup ever,” “Best fuel economy pickup ever,” “It’s a pickup truck that handles like a sports car,” “Essentially 75 MPG pickup truck,” and “First full year of production is already pre-sold (supposedly 14,000 trucks have been pre-sold according to VP Pence).”
I thought we were here to see the production-ready truck and find out about the concrete details? Nothing, nada, no new info.
To top it off, early in his speech Burns talked about how loyal Ford fans are to the F-150, so much so that they get buried in them. No good segway from that back to why someone would want to buy a Lordstown Endurance truck instead either. (PS: Ford is unveiling their next-generation F-150 later today.)
The Trump Campaign Rally Begins
Thirty-two minutes into the event Burns then introduced the U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette. Brouillette’s speech started off strong with Lordstown showing how the U.S. was going to lead the charge with electric vehicles, and then quickly devolved into a campaign speech touting all that President Trump has done for the U.S. energy sector.
Again, NOTHING about the Lordstown Endurance truck we were all tuned in to see and hear about.
Maybe We Now Get To See the Lordstown Endurance?
The screen then went to a white PowerPoint slide with the Lordstown Motors logo on it. No segway, no hint at what was next, no hype. We got over 3-minutes of this screen.
To top it off the country song that started playing was Jason Aldean’s “Take a Little Ride,” which is explicitly about his Chevy pickup. It has lyrics like; “Well I’m just ready to ride this Chevy, Ride this Chevy down a little back road.”
WHY! Why would a new truck company play a song talking about someone’s love and use of a competitor’s pickup truck?
A short design and testing video was then shown about the truck. It revealed nothing, and I believe is all footage they’ve shown before.
The Lordstown Endurance Arrives!
THEN, the Lordstown Endurance truck drives into the factory and up onto the stage. Out of the truck come Burns and U.S. VP Mike Pence. The truck looks exactly like the images we’ve already seen.
Pence then takes the podium and proceeds to hype the crowd with praise for everyone in the room. He does point to the truck and calls it by name. That then devolves into a 27+ minute campaign speech for President Donald Trump.
While VP Pence was quite articulate, he said NOTHING about the Endurance electric truck.
The crowd shown was about 30+ people, on camera at least, standing shoulder to shoulder, and only a handful wearing masks. At one point Burns looked to actually tell a person in the audience to remove their mask for a photo with Pence.
The virtual even then just ended. Yep, after a few photo ops with the crowd the screen faded out and video stopped.
No New Endurance Electric Truck Info
So far the entire Lordestown company has been about American jobs, saving a factory, bringing/keeping manufacturing in Ohio, and not much about the product at all. While we’re really excited about the Lordstown Endurance electric truck, we really don’t know much concrete info about it. There is lots of hype and proposed specs, but otherwise, we know little besides what it will look like on the exterior.
On a side note, the stock for the publically traded Workhorse Group (WKHS), which owns 10% of Lordstown Motors and supplies much of the technology found in the Endurance pickup, was down over 3% during the press conference and continues to drop sharply.
