All-electric models from Ford and Lordstown Motors

On June 22, the configurator for the all-electric compact crossover Ford Mustang Mach-E is to be activated and thus reservations can be converted into orders. At the same time, the US startup Lordstown Motors has announced the presentation of its Endurance electric pickup truck for the same day.

Lordstown Motors announced that the unveiling of its all-electric Lordstown Endurance pickup truck will take place on June 22, 2020 – the same day as Ford opens configurators for the Mach-E.  Lordstown Motors has also revealed more about its schedule targets for production and delivery as well as the details of the required developments in the new plant and required personnel.

Back in January this year, before the extent of the pandemic was clear in the USA, Lordstown Motors said they planned to present the Endurance electric pickup truck at the Detroit Auto Show in June, with production scheduled to start this year. It seems that the US-American startup will be able to stick to its planned schudule.

According to a press release made available to InsideEVs, Lordstown Motors’ CEO Steve Burns announced, “I’m pleased to report that we will be introducing the Endurance at a Lordstown Motors company meeting the week of June 22nd, which we will be filming and releasing to the public before the month is up.”

At the same time as confirming this launch date with a specific day, Lordstown Motors also gave an update on progress at the assembly plant they bought from General Motors in Ohio in November, as well as the appointment of its board members. The board members will be Jane Reiss, Steve Schrader and Dale Spencer. At the Ohio plant, the US startup are working on finalising the prototype vehicle battery among other developments in the body shop, the general facilities – which also includes starting the infrastructure work required for the lines. This also includes finalizing details on IT requirements for plant and engineering needs as well as finalizing the IT architecture, among other things. In a recent press release, the company stated: “The progress made so far is a testament to the fact that we started in a fully equipped 6 million square foot plant, which meant we were able to get to work right away creating the lines we need to build the Endurance.”

For the same date of 22 June, Ford’s director of U.S. sales Andrew Frick has announced that order books will open for the Mustang Mach E order book will open up on that day. It will then be possible to convert reservations into concrete orders for the all-electric Ford crosssover. Ford open configurations and start finalising the configurations for the First Edition of the Mach E. According to an Ohio Ford dealership, it typically takes 8-12 weeks from order to delivery. This may still come across hurdles with Ford still catching up on production after the recently restarted plants were forced to close because of the pandemic.

Recently, the US website EV Bite reported communications with US dealers saying that the launch date looks likely to be followed through. This confidence comes from recent Ford dealer documents stating the beginning of product training for the Mustang Mach E in “early July”.  Originally, these training schedules were set for last month but due to the Corona crisis, the Mustang Mach-E’s status was placed on hold. Apparently, dealers will can now schedule their required training next week. Product Trainers will be available beginning June 18th for “Product related questions”.

Last month, emails to Ford reservation holders in Europe were advised that the all-electric Ford Mustang Mach-E will probably not reach Europe this year, but only at the beginning of 2021. The emails were published in the Mach-E Forum and addressed to customers in Great Britain, France and the Netherlands. A Ford spokesperson told Electrek that although a parallel market launch is planned for the end of 2020 in the USA and Europe, customers in Europe will still have to wait.

evbite.com (Ford)  insideevs.com (Lordstown Motors)