Camping World CEO Marcus Lemonis’ dream of building one of the first electric RVs has temporarily hit a snag.
This spring, Lemonis announced a partnership with Ohio-based electric truck startup company Lordstown Motors to develop an all-electric recreational vehicle. Lordstown Motors captured the attention of EV enthusiasts earlier when it announced production plans for its Endurance work truck.
Trouble surfaced soon after, when Lordstown was accused of misleading investors about the extent of orders for the Endurance truck, which brought an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. That ultimately led to the resignations of the company’s CEO Steve Burns and Chief Financial Officer Julio Rodriguez.
Lordstown Motors has a “prototype” electric RV van
On Tuesday, Lordstown Motors President Rich Schmidt said that the company has developed a “prototype” electric RV van. They had planned to unveil it to the public 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 partnership with Camping World included the development of an electric RV with a range of up to 350 miles. Camping World was planning to add a network of service centers to handle repairs and provide charging stations.
Also on Tuesday, Schmidt said Lordstown Motors had enough orders in place for the company’s Endurance truck to begin production. “Again, we’re just focused currently on the Endurance truck,” he said. “That’s 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.” Schmidt said Lordstown Motors enough “binding orders” for the Endurance work truck to fund production until May 2022.
But that story took another strange turn last Thursday when the company backtracked on Schmidt’s statement about having committed buyers in place for its truck. In a new filing with the Security and Exchange Commission, Lordstown admitted the purchase agreements it had in hand did not represent binding purchase orders.
“Although these vehicle purchase agreements provide us with a significant indicator of demand for the Endurance, these agreements do not represent binding purchase orders or other firm purchase commitments,” Lordstown said in its SEC filing. “We have engaged in limited marketing activities and we have no binding purchase orders or commitments from customers.” The news sent the company’s stock tumbling another 4% on Thursday. It’s down more than 50% in 2021.
So those eagerly anticipating the unveiling of the Lordstown Motors/Camping World EV RV this month will have to wait a while. The much-touted collaboration on an all-electric RV is, ironically, out of gas.
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##RVT1005b
How old are the commenters on here? My gosh you are a bunch of cry babies. I have camped in every form possible throughout my life and know Lemonis is actually a good person who is quite honest as well. Do you people do anything but whine?
And for the outdated b**b who said an EV could not tow or handle the load of and ICE. What data or non logic are you basing that on? I am an engineer but that is not required to know the facts. In all actuality a Tesla X SUV will drag a 4×4 F 350 down the street with all 4 wheels spinning. The limiting factor will be the structural vehicle itself and not the Propulsion. If you must comment at least know what you are saying.
As for an RV range would not matter much. It is the perfect use of an electric vehicle. It is the one time you have the time to park and charge while relaxing, eating lunch or an overnight stop on your trip.
For the record I am not a big fan of EV at the moment myself but at least be honest about it.
Lemonis 🤬
In the words of the Infamous Mario Andretti, “I hope I’m dead when that happens”
No surprise here – more lies from the people at Climate Change, Inc.
Will those execs do prison time or just make the standard political contribution and get off with a promise to not get caught again?
Can’t really tell if this article is an in your face Lemonis, or a sympathy for Lemonis. Either way, I’m surprised RVTravel is giving him the time of day. What Lemonis has done to Camping World and Good Sam club is shameful to say the least.
Marcus Lemonis and Camping World’s motto….We’re not happy until you’re not happy.
Another EV overhype. These events will repeat over and over as consumers reject these vehicles.
Lordstown is pretty much done. Stick a fork in them…
Camping World has never been able to fix my Thors electrical issues.
I ended up replacing the converter myself
I don’t see how CW could deal with EV RVs
A plus would be we could legally camp on a charger overnight but our sleep might be interrupted by self-righteous Prius & Tesla owners knocking on the door
Ditto
Reading these stories about EVs being the future is a bit concerning as an RVer. I can’t see an EV pulling anything more than a popup with any ability to match the performance or reliability of hydrocarbon propulsion for decades. And when one considers the infrastructure needed to confidently travel anywhere coast to coast,,,,,,.
Just like every other EV idea it looks great on paper but… why are Californians trading in thousands of EVs and going back to gasoline? Because the infrastructure is not there to support them. CA move to use GREEN energy has resulted in constant rolling blackouts, if you can’t recharge your EV during the time you have power what do you do? If you have a long commute, or a work schedule that prevents recharging when power is available you’re basically screwed, Elon Musk and Marcus Lemonis are cut from the same cloth, they do a good job marketing without concern for the long term, but that’s the way they make their money, they both have more than me so I guess they’re doing something right.
Sure sounds like a typical Lemonis pipe dream. In his mind everything is perfect. In reality it just doesn’t fan out, and probably never will. He mislead the investors, doesn’t have committed orders, and makes promises he cannot keep. Then he says he will have a network of service centers to do repairs and have charging stations. Bring your new electric RV to a Camping World facility and wait weeks or months for repairs!!
Isnt Lemonis is some kind of stock scam i can see Camping World come tumbling down
Sounds like Lemonis’ kind of people…..