The first 500 examples of the Lordstown Motors Endurance Electric pickups rolled off the assembly line in the United States.

Lordstown Motors has announced that the first batch of endurance pickup trucks will ship to customers this week from its Foxconn electric vehicle plant in Ohio.

The Endurance is fitted with four in-wheel electric motors producing a claimed peak power of 410kW – fed by a 109kWh battery pack for an estimated range of 322km. Claimed 0 to 100 km/h time is 6.5 seconds, not much slower than a new Ford Ranger Raptor twin-turbo V6.

The introduction of customer vehicles is a significant milestone for Lordstown, which was on the brink of bankruptcy earlier this year before Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn – the company that makes iPhones for Apple – offered a $230 million (AU$343 million) lifeline. dollars) buys his factory in the town of Lordstown.

“I am very proud of Lordstown Motors and Foxconn [electric vehicle] Ohio team for their hard work, courage and tenacity in reaching this milestone,” Lordstown CEO Edward Hightower said in a media statement this week.

“We are very pleased to start delivering vehicles to our commercial fleet customers. The Endurance will offer benefits to customers who use their vehicles for work,” he said.

Mr. Hightower replaced company founder and CEO Steve Burns when both he and CFO Julio Rodriguez abruptly announced their departures in June 2021.

Part of the motivation for starting the company, Mr Burns said in 2019, was to save the Lordstown plant after General Motors decided to close it after more than five decades of operation – and the plant for the bargain price of US$20 million (AU$30 million) to buy from GM.

The electric car start-up also announced this week that its Ute has been certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resource Board.