A prototype of a Lordstown Endurance electric pickup truck caught fire during a road test in Michigan last month, according to a police report.

21 News has obtained a report from the Farmington Hills, Michigan Police Department about a January 13, 2021 incident along a divided four-lane highway in a residential neighborhood. A report from the Farmington Hills Fire Department obtained by the Tribune Chronicle showed images of the charred prototype. 

According to police, an officer was dispatched just after midnight to an area of 12 Mile Rd. and Copper Creek Lane to assist the fire department with a vehicle fire.

Upon arrival, the officer reported that the truck was engulfed in flame.

The officer said he spoke with the vehicle driver, Pirakalathan Pathmanathan, who identified himself as director of power train at Lordstown Motors’ satellite research and development center in Farmington Hills.

Pathmanathan explained to police that the vehicle was a 2021 Lordstown Endurance that had cleared testing inside the facility, and this was the first road test for the fully electric truck.

According to the report, Pathmaneathan said that he and two of his co-workers had been driving it for about ten minutes when he noticed the truck was “driving weird” and pulled over when the fire started from underneath the truck.

The fire department extinguished the fire, and the truck was towed.

21 News reached out via email to ottoandfriends.com, the company handling public relations for Lordstown Motors, to learn more about what caused the fire. 

Late Monday morning, Ryan Hallet of ottoandfreinds.com issued the following statement:

"We do not generally comment on individual testing conditions. However, we do want to acknowledge that, on January 13, we did have an event during a test with a development mule, and not a full Endurance pickup truck. No one was hurt, and like all of our test findings, we do it to create a great product."

 

"Mule" is the generic term used in the automotive industry to designate the very first prototypes used to test the design, technology, mechanics, body, etc., of a future model car.

Lordstown Motors shared a Facebook video last week showing the Endurance platform equipped with a plow to show how the Endurance would navigate the snow.

Lordstown Motors Corporation CEO Steve Burns has announced that the company plans to build a prototype of the all-electric, commercial-grade pickup truck in March at its manufacturing plant in Lordstown.

According to a statement released by the company, Lordstown Motors is conducting the metal stamping and welding process for the first 57 Beta prototypes of the Endurance and expects to complete the first Beta vehicles on schedule in March.

The Beta series prototypes will be used for crash, engineering, and validation testing. The company also expects some of these vehicles may be sent to some initial customers for their feedback. The truck has already achieved a 5-Star crash test rating via software crash simulation, according to LMC.

Also, Lordstown Motors is planning to unveil an Electric Van in June, with production starting in the second half of 2022. Based on the Endurance platform, the van will use hub motors for all-wheel drive and low ground clearance.

Plans are for the van to be the world's first production all-electric RV, manufactured in partnership with Camping World. The van will be priced competitively with comparable internal combustion-based vans, according to LMC.

The company currently employs 343 full-time workers, including 171 at their Ohio headquarters, 131 engineers at the satellite research and development center in Farmington Hills, Michigan, 18 remote workers, and 23 at the service center in Irvine, California.

LMC expects employment to reach 1,000 by the end of this year.