What happened

Shares of Lordstown Motors (RIDE 5.42%) were trading higher on Monday after the company released a business update and confirmed that it's on track to begin production of its electric pickup truck in September of 2021.

As of 1:45 p.m. EST, Lordstown's shares were up about 10.2% from Friday's closing price.

So what

Lordstown went public just a few weeks ago, in late October, after completing a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company. The company plans to begin regular quarterly earnings reports after the current quarter ends, but in lieu of a third-quarter report it provided an update on the state of its business.

The big news for auto investors is that there's no big (negative) news: Reservations for the electric Endurance pickup truck are flowing in and Lordstown is gearing up for production, as expected. 

A silver Lordstown Endurance, an electric pickup truck.

Lordstown's Endurance, a battery-electric pickup designed for fleet use, is on track to begin production in September 2021, the company said on Monday. Image source: Lordstown Motors.

Lordstown said it's on track to begin deliveries of the Endurance pickup next fall, as promised, with production gradually ramping up into 2022. In the meantime, it's testing early prototypes, and it's planning to build a run of "beta" trucks on its under-construction assembly line early next year, for further testing before production starts. 

On the sales side, Lordstown said it has about 50,000 non-binding "reservations" for the Endurance from commercial-fleet operators, with an average order size of around 500 trucks. The company has also had interest from local, state, and federal government agencies, as well as the U.S. military, it said -- all potential customers that can't officially place reservations now. 

Now what

Lordstown also announced three new executive promotions, including a new president and a new chief of its propulsion team, Rich Schmidt and John Vo, both of whom joined the company from Tesla. The third, auto-industry manufacturing veteran Shane Brown, is Lordstown's new chief production officer, the company said.