Lordstown Motors sells factory to Taiwan’s Foxconn, Fisker to win
The deal will bring the long-suffering Ohio-based start-up the funds it needs to launch the Endurance electric pickup truck, but its price will now have to include the cost of renting a site from Foxconn Technology Group. At the same plant, most likely, in a couple of years, an inexpensive passenger electric car PEAR of another American startup, Fisker, which signed a contract for contract assembly with Foxconn in May, will be put into production.
In the fall of 2019, Lordstown Motors bought from General Motors for $ 20 million an unnecessary plant in Lordstown (Ohio) with a capacity of 600 thousand cars a year and began to convert it to the production of electric vehicles – Endurance pickups with motor wheels. Everything was going well until last May, when an independent investigation by the investment company Hindenburg Research was published, which accused the founder of the startup, Steve Burns, of fraud, namely, of deceiving investors about the real number of orders for Endurance: it turned out that instead of the declared “more than 100 thousands of people who want "Lordstown Motors does not have a single major contract. After that, investors turned away from Lordstown Motors, money for work was chronically lacking.
Lordstown Motors plant in Ohio
In June, Steve Burns stepped down and was replaced by interim CEO Angela Strand, who was replaced in August by permanent new CEO Daniel Ninivaji, a senior executive with extensive experience in the automotive OEM sector. Ninivaji promised to find additional investments for Lordstown Motors and kept his word. Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, which announced its intentions to enter the auto business last year, has agreed to buy a $230 million Ohio plant from Lordstown Motors and will spend $50 million to buy Lordstown Motors shares in addition.
Lordstown Motors plant in Ohio
The amount of the deal seems like a fantastic stroke of luck for Ninivaji, given the original purchase price of the site from GM, with Lordstown Motors holding key parts of the Endurance pickup assembly line. The partners have yet to agree on a joint operation and the cost of renting part of the plant for Lordstown Motors. The deal is expected to close in about six months. In any case, the Endurance pickup will be the only model produced at the plant for the next two years.
Lordstown Motors plant in Ohio
Recall that in May, Foxconn and the Californian electric car startup Fisker, headed by Danish designer and entrepreneur Henrik Fisker, entered into an agreement on the contact assembly of the future conditionally budget model Fisker (starting price – less than 30 thousand dollars) called PEAR. Then it was reported that PEAR production would begin at the end of 2023 at the American Foxconn car plant, whose capacity would be at least 150 cars per year, but the specific location of the plant was not named (four sites were considered).
Now Foxconn has decided on a site, and Automotive News, citing Henrik Fisker, clarifies that PEAR production will begin in the first quarter of 2024 and in the future will reach a capacity of 250,000 cars a year.
Lordstown Endurance
In theory, Lordstown Motors will keep most of the plant at its disposal, but we hardly imagine that the startup will ever be able to reach a capacity of 300-350 thousand cars a year – competition in the electric pickup segment of the American market is becoming more and more fierce. Startup Rivian and Ford have already begun production of their plug-in trucks, and Lordstown Motors is just getting started. The rhythmic release of the Endurance will be possible at best in the middle of next year, while the technical characteristics of the Lordstown pickup truck are not the most outstanding.
Lordstown Endurance Platform
Lordstown Endurance is equipped with a power plant of four motor-wheels with a total capacity of 608 hp, the capacity of the battery built into the frame is 109 kWh, the cruising range on a single charge is 250 miles (402 km). Up to 60 miles / h (96.56 km / h) pickup can accelerate in 5.5 seconds, the maximum speed is limited to 128 km / h. The previously announced base price was $55,000, but it has now been removed from the company’s website.
Lordstown Endurance
In general, we will observe the development of events. The plant in Lordstown will not disappear in any case, but for the startup of the same name, we would not vouch for it yet.
We add that in May Foxconn became a strategic partner of Stellantis Corporation in China, but it is possible that in the event of the failure of Lordstown Motors, the auto giant will be ready to load the site in Lordstown with its cars.