Lordstown Halts Electric RV Plans with Camping World
Lordstown plans to shift focus to development of its electric truck instead
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Lordstown Motors President Rich Schmidt said Tuesday the company has stopped plans to develop an electric RV with Camping World. The company instead plans to focus its efforts on further developing and releasing its electric truck, Endurance. The decision comes as Lordstown is experiencing recent turnover and leadership changes. CEO Steve Burns and Chief Financial Officer Julio Rodriguez resigned Monday.
At a press conference the Automotive Press Association conducted, Schmidt said Lordstown had developed a prototype electric RV. The companies previously said they expected to unveil prototypes in June.
“We do have a prototype van that has been completed, and it shares a lot of commonized parts with the Endurance,” Schmidt said. “It will possibly be shown later in the summer, but at this point, we are currently focused only on the Endurance.”
The original announcement between the companies included development of an electric RV with a range up to 350 miles. Camping World also had scheduled the addition of service centers to handle Endurance repairs, as well as the installation of charging stations.
“Again we’re just focused currently on the Endurance truck,” Schmidt said. “That is our next goal for the next three months, is to make sure we hit our production targets and stay within our budgets and drive forward to getting the vehicles ready for the market.”
Camping World announced in April it would conduct an in-person investor conference Sept. 14-15 in Utah. As part of the event, Camping World planned to conduct an off-site preview and presentation of the first Electric World retail location in Draper, Utah.
The event remains on Camping World’s investor relations event calendar, but the company has not announced whether the change in status of the collaboration with Lordstown Motors will halt work on the first Electric World or other EV service plans.
