Detroit — Electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors Corp. is creating an automotive R&D center in Farmington Hills with support from the Michigan Strategic Fund, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation said Tuesday.
The center will have offices, space for vehicle inspection and benchmarking, and labs for testing, validation and prototyping.
The project comes with $3.6 million in private investment and creates 141 jobs, resulting in a $1 million Michigan Business Program performance-based grant. Michigan was chosen over competing sites in California and Ohio for the center.
Lordstown Motors debuted its all-electric Endurance truck this summer and it has received more than 50,000 pre-orders for the vehicle. The automaker said Monday it has made progress on preparing to start production of the truck next year with construction starting on a 700,000-square-foot battery pack and hub motor production facility at Lordstown Motors’ 6.2 million square foot northeast Ohio headquarters.
Lordstown Motors is housed in General Motors Co.’s Lordstown Assembly plant, which the Detroit automaker sold to the electric-truck startup in 2019.
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