Yahoo Finance Lordstown stock higher as first deliveries begin
Lordstown Motors (RIDE), the embattled EV truck maker, finally has some good news to share with the automotive world, and investors.
The company’s long-awaited EV pickup, the Endurance, has achieved full homologation, meaning it now complies with safety requirements for sale in the U.S., the company said. In addition, the Endurance has received EPA and CARB (California Air Resources Board) certification, meaning it is now rated by both agencies.
Finally, and most importantly, the company said it is delivering the first batch of 500 Endurance EVs to customers. The Endurance pickup is built at Foxconn’s EV Ohio plant in Lordstown, Ohio.
“I am very proud of the Lordstown Motors and Foxconn EV Ohio team for their hard work, grit, and tenacity in achieving this milestone. We are very excited to start delivering vehicles to our commercial fleet customers,” said Edward Hightower, Lordstown CEO and president in a statement.
“The Endurance will provide benefits to customers that use their vehicles for work. It optimizes key attributes of traction and maneuverability — with our in-wheel hub motors, safety — with our five-star crash performance, and value in the segment.”
Lordstown says production volume will initially ramp slowly and eventually increase as it resolves “supply chain constraints.”
It’s been a long and bumpy road for Lordstown Motors. The company unveiled the Endurance EV pickup back in 2019 and initially said it would come out in 2020. Numerous production delays and management issues have plagued the company ever since.
After the company acquired GM’s Lordstown facility and completed its SPAC merger with DiamondPeak in early 2021, short-seller Hindenburg Research published a note accusing Lordstown of fraud and misleading investors, mostly with regard to whether the company’s thousands of pre-orders were binding and had deposits attached.
Later that year, Lordstown said the company did not have enough capital to begin production of the Endurance, and that it was at risk of filing for bankruptcy. Both CEO Steve Burns and its CFO left the company, and a board-initiated investigation found that pre-order numbers were overstated.
Near the end of 2021, the company sold the Lordstown plant to Foxconn, which then became Lordstown’s contract manufacturer. As part of the deal, Foxconn invested in Lordstown, and eventually formed a joint venture with Lordstown to build EVs in May 2022.
New CEO Ed Hightower joined Lordstown in July 2022, and earlier this month Foxconn announced another investment in the company.
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Pras Subramanian is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter and on Instagram.
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