ENNEAGRAM LORDSTOWN

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 55

neagram “provides a framework for how future gross sales. But perhaps more
we can begin to live into our most authen- Lordstown’s crucial to its future, Workhorse has been
tic selves, and also reveals the wisdom and New Electric promised the use of part of the massive
Kool-Aid Acid Test
gifts that each personality type can offer Lordstown plant to manufacture its own
to the world.” Cincinnati idea guy Steve Burns wants to build the

world’s best electric pickup truck in northeastern Ohio.

electric vehicles.
Another best-selling writer connect- Workhorse is one of three finalists
President Trump, General Motors, big-time New York

investors, and Loveland startup friends are with him,

while Tesla, Amazon, Ford, and (yes) General Motors are

ing religion and the Enneagram, Chris trying to beat him to market. What could go wrong?
vying for a $6.3 billion contract from
Heuertz, increased Enneagram’s aware- By Jim DeBrosse
Illustration by Tom Humberstone the U.S. Postal Service to replace its ag-
ness in a different manner recently— 52
ing fleet of gas-powered delivery trucks
through cancel culture. In June, an article with electric ones. An announcement
published on Medium and signed by 33 full-sized electric Chevy pickup for the on the 180,000-vehicle deal is ex-
women and men alleged spiritual and consumer market. With an eye to intro- pected by the end of the year, and the
psychological abuse by Heuertz, who had ducing 20 different electric vehicles by arrangement to use the Lordstown
a number of ties to Rohr’s Center for Ac- 2023, GM is partnering with LG Chem to plant makes Workhorse a serious con-
tion and Contemplation, including co- build a $2.3 billion battery plant in Lord- tender. While the Loveland company’s
production of the Enneagram Mapmakers stown, not far from the auto plant. 250,000-square-foot factory in Union
podcast. The Center has paused collabo- Meanwhile, Ford is developing an City, Indiana, would be hard-pressed
rations with Heuertz, and the Christian electric version of its best-selling F-150 to meet the contract’s demands, Lord-
media company Zondervan is suspend- pickup while also partnering with Riv- stown’s sprawling plant has more than
ing promotion of two books and a docu- ian, which plans to introduce an electric 24 times the capacity.
mentary film associated with Heuertz. pickup in summer 2021 (about the same Lordstown Motors says it already
“Everybody’s been taken with him in the time as Lordstown Motors) that boasts has 27,000 pre-orders for the Endur-
Enneagram world, so the allegations just a 400-mile range. Not to be outdone, ance, primarily from commercial fleet
kind of rocked us all,” says Tato. Nikola touts its Badger electric pickup, owners, a market that Burns knows well
Interest in the Enneagram continues to be produced in 2022, as “unlike any- from his years at Workhorse Group,
to build, despite the occasional negative thing on the market,” with a 600-mile which he founded in 2007. But while
news coverage. Self-discovery and self- range and an awe-inspiring 906 peak Burns headed up Workhorse, it lost
care might be vulnerable work, but it’s horsepower. nearly $150 million from its inception
also freeing. Humans love our familiar Burns has repeatedly told the media in 2007 to his departure in 2019 and
patterns, though at a certain point re- that the Endurance’s “in-hub” electric produced fewer than 400 vehicles. In
peating past harmful behaviors becomes motors will give it a distinct advan- an e-mail, Workhorse Executive Vice
detrimental. “Our brain takes between tage over its competitors. Rather than President Daniel Zito said such per-
about 20 and 25 percent of our body’s a single motor riding over an axle, each formance is not unusual for a startup
energy to manage,” says Tato. “If you have wheel of the Endurance will have its in an industry “that is capital-intensive
a way of thinking, feeling, and behaving own built-in motor, generating 600 and requires significant volume to lower
that works for you, in order to save en- horsepower from all four wheels. By its component acquisition costs. Work-
ergy, what will your brain do with that comparison, the Dodge Ram’s much- horse was still in the process of raising
pattern? Repeat it. That’s the issue.” vaunted 5.7-liter Hemi V8 supplies less vehicle volume during Steve’s tenure.”
We are much more than those patterns than 400 horsepower, with about one Before the end of the year, Work-
of detrimental behavior, Tato says. “We’re quarter of the Endurance’s fuel efficien- horse hopes to deliver another 300
not a type or a number on a chart. That’s cy (an average of 18 miles per gallon). In to 400 of the 1,000 electric vehicles
just kind of home base and what you do August, Fiat Chrysler announced it will promised to UPS since mid-2018,
well. The most powerful part of the sys- start making a 700-horsepower version Workhorse CEO Duane Hughes an-
tem is in the connecting lines, which im- of its gasoline-powered Ram pickup for nounced over the summer. But two
ply the developmental strategies.” those who might fear for their manhood other innovative ideas Burns devel-
Perhaps the Enneagram can also be against the emerging electric competi- oped at Workhorse have yet to get
interpreted as a metaphor for the wider tion. And given that each wheel of the off the ground, including the SureFly
world, because fully exploring it is a ho- Endurance has its own power source, personal helicopter, a two-person fly-
listic practice. All nine types comprise the truck is less likely to get stuck in able drone with a 75-mile radius, and
the tool, and each type is necessary for a mud or snow. HorseFly, a roof-mounted drone aimed
holistic understanding of how people be- Lordstown Motors purchased the at multiplying the delivery capabilities
have and interact. “Utilizing Enneagram rights to its hub motor design from of UPS trucks. After a year of looking
has transformed me,” says P&G’s Vana- Workhorse Group, Burns’s previous for potential buyers, Workhorse sold
sse. “It has made my life really that much startup, in exchange for 10 percent own- both designs late last year to the design
more peaceful.” ership of Lordstown and 1 percent of its and manufacturing firm Moog, based in

7 0 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M N
AUOG
VUEM
S TB E2 R0 1240 2 0