Thanks to the success of Tesla, countless new electric automakers have popped up, but success is not easy. One of the companies that can certainly attest to this is Lordstown, which has been facing many challenges. Investigation from the feds and financial woes have been a common theme for the company, but things got a lot better after an investment from Apple iPhone manufacturer Foxconn. Thanks to this deal, Lordstown has been able to move forward with plans to manufacture the Endurance full-size pickup. And now the automaker has announced that production is finally underway, with the first two commercial release production vehicles rolling off the Foxconn-owned Ohio plant late last month and the third "expected to be completed shortly."

Lordstown says that these few introductory units form part of the first batch of up to 500 vehicles that can be sold to the public, with CEO Edward Hightower also providing an update on the company's current status: "We will continue to build at a slow rate as we address remaining part pedigree and part availability issues. We expect to increase the speed of production into November and December. Our homologation and certification processes are proceeding as planned."

On that note, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards crash testing has been successfully completed, and EPA and CARB applications have been submitted. The automaker says that testing continues and other certifications are being finalized as software updates are being completed.

So when can you get your hands on one? The automaker expects to deliver "approximately 50 units to customers in 2022 and the remainder of the first batch in the first half of 2023, subject to raising sufficient capital." Lordstown expects to end the third quarter of this year with around $195 million in cash and cash equivalents, including $27.1 million of proceeds from equity assurances. And it expects to end the year with approximately $110 million in cash and cash equivalents, excluding any additional capital it can raise. This cash outlook is roughly $75 million better than its previous outlook.

The final production version of the Lordstown Endurance was shown off at the 2022 Detroit Auto Show last month and has already been nominated as a semifinalist for the 2023 North American Truck of the Year. Clearly, the EV company has made significant improvements over the course of this year and will be hoping to capitalize on that momentum in 2023, while Tesla's Cybertruck has still not made much progress. The longer the Cybertruck takes to reach production, the better it will be for startups like this to capitalize, but with inflation and other factors hampering all automakers' efforts to bring new products to market, we wouldn't break out the champagne just yet.