Lordstown halts Endurance electric truck production

The Lordstown Endurance electric pickup truck has only been in production for a couple of months, but Lordstown on Thursday announced it has stopped production and further deliveries due to performance and quality issues.

Lordstown also announced plans to voluntarily recall the electric trucks it has already delivered, and that it has filed the necessary paperwork with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall affects 19 examples that are either in the hands of customers or being used internally by the company.

In its announcement, Lordstown described the issue as a specific electric connection that could result in a loss of power while driving. The company said it is working with suppliers on finding a remedy and will provide an update during its 2022 earnings call scheduled for March 6.

Lordstown Endurance

“While our experienced team has made significant progress in addressing the underlying component and vehicle sub-system issues affecting the Endurance build schedule, we remain committed to doing the right thing by our customers and to resolve potential issues before resuming production and customer shipments,” Edward Hightower, Lordstown's CEO, said in a statement.

The Endurance is a full-size electric truck with in-wheel hub motors. Production takes place at plant in Lordstown, Ohio, which is owned and operated by Foxconn, the Taiwanese contract manufacturer famous for building iPhones for Apple. Foxconn acquired the plant from Lordstown in 2021 after Lordstown suffered a cash crunch. Lordstown originally acquired the plant from General Motors in 2019.

While Lordstown is experiencing production setbacks, rival EV startup Lucid announced this week it is overcoming some of the supply chain issues that throttled production of its Air sedan over the course of 2022. The company on Wednesday said it managed to increase production by 50% in the fourth quarter of 2022, enabling it to beat its target for the year. Nevertheless, the company only built 7,180 cars in 2022 and still only expects to build between 10,000 and 14,000 cars in 2023.