Lordstown Motors recently entered its electric Endurance pickup in the SCORE San Felipe 250 race, only to have to drop out after the first stage. Although the Endurance truck and its components resist the elements, the Lordstown team acknowledged that the pre-race energy consumption estimates were incorrect, and that the EV prototype was unlikely to reach the second phase.
In an official statement in February, US carmaker Lordstown Motors ($ RIDE) announced that it has entered its Endurance Beta skateboard in the 2021 SCORE International San Felipe 250. The single race takes place entirely in the city of San Felipe in Baja California, Mexico.
Lordstown Motors x the SCORE San Felipe 250
The San Felipe 250 is considered an exhausting and tough racetrack for all types of vehicles. Lordstown Motors hoped to prove that its electric endurance is not only safe and efficient, but also difficult in any terrain. Lord Burton’s CEO Steve Burns said the following during the announcements:
We feel that it is an important milestone for the community of electric vehicles that an electric pickup can compete in an environment as demanding as Baja California.
Our goal is to be the first electric vehicle to ever complete the San Felipe 250, and with the excellent traction, weight balance and advanced software control of our hub-based Endurance, we are confident that we will do just that.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. The true claim of the San Felipe site became clear to Lordstown Motors after the first 40 kilometers of the race. During a reload after the first phase, the Endurance team analyzed its data and realized that it had underestimated the toll the desert environment would claim for its EV. An official statement from the car manufacturer explains:
In our estimates before the race, we assumed a 3X energy consumption compared to normal road conditions at 200 feet altitude. After phase 1, however, our data showed the consumption at 4 times the normal level. When we recharge for phase 2, we conclude that the next leg – more than 65 miles at a net altitude of 1750 feet – could lead to our vehicle stopping in the mountainous terrain without viable or accessible loading options. Therefore, we decided not to send the vehicle back on track.
If you do not succeed initially …
Although Lordstown’s race for the day ended, the car manufacturers continued the field test for another ten kilometers to collect as much data as possible. The company says it is very pleased with the performance of the vehicle and the data it has collected so far. Lordstown has also revealed that he plans to return to San Felipe again next year:
We aim our hat at Baja and the difficult terrain and we look forward to next year. We expected to be pushed to the extreme and we were not disappointed. We will continue to drive our vehicle and our team to the extreme, as this is what is needed to successfully develop the level of market-changing innovation to which we are committed.
Finally, Lordstown Motors released a video of CEO Steve Burns talking about the San Felipe race and the Endurance’s early retirement. You can watch the video here:
Electrek’s Take
Failure is part of innovation and should be celebrated in many ways. Good for Lordstown Motors trying to push the boundaries of what an EV can do, especially in a budding model like the electric pickup.
The Endurance team knew San Felipe would be treacherous, but even they were caught off guard by the amount of energy the prototype needed to get through just the first 40 miles. Back to the drawing board, as the saying goes. At least they will come back with a ton of data to analyze.
What does not make this early retirement a travesty is the transparency regarding the retirement and the strategy to release an official statement and a video of the CEO. It’s almost as if Lordstown is familiar with PR nightmares and damage control.
It’s cool that Lordstown Motors tried (and failed) the San Felipe 250. At the very least, it has aroused a bit of publicity that is not bad. A major question in consumers’ attention, however, is how similar this desert prototype is to the consumer version of Endurance.
Lordstown said the four hub motors performed well and showed excellent traction, but it is still relatively unproven technology. Furthermore, will any of the shortcomings discovered in Baja California further delay the delivery of the Endurance pickup? There are no answers yet, but check back with Electrek soon.
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