Cars and Drivers

In EV News: Lordstown in Trouble, Ford Hints at EV Pickup and More

Paul Ausick

Published: June 9, 2021 10:22 am

On Tuesday, Lordstown Motors Corp. (NASDAQ: RIDE) filed an amended first-quarter report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In the filing, Lordstown said that there is “substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern” for another year. The company continues to expect to begin production of its all-electric Endurance pickup in September, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
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Lordstown has run into cash problems. In its SEC filing, the company said it had cash and equivalents valued at around $587 million at the end of the March quarter. Lordstown also had an accumulated deficit of $259.7 million at the same time.

In April, Goldman Sachs cut its rating on Lordstown stock from Buy to Neutral and chopped its price target from $21 to $10. Tuesday’s filing pushed the shares down by more than 16% to close at $11.22, and Lordstown dropped another 10% early Wednesday to trade right around $10 per share.

Just one day after announcing its new hybrid Maverick small pickup, Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) hinted that it may be adding an all-electric model of the new truck. In response to a tweet from @Tweetermeyer, Ford communications manager Mike Levine replied with this photo:

https://twitter.com/mrlevine/status/1402268994585960469

That outline doesn’t exactly specify that a Maverick EV is coming, but it probably makes the most sense. The new F-150 Lightning EV has a base price of just under $40,000, twice the price of the entry-level Maverick. If Ford can get the price of a Maverick EV close to $30,000, a federal subsidy of $10,000 or $12,500 slices the price right down to the price of hybrid Maverick.

If (and it’s a big if) Ford can deliver on something like this, Lordstown won’t be the only pickup EV company in trouble.

Last November, Norwegian fertilizer company Yara Norge took delivery of the world’s first net-zero, battery-powered autonomous container ship. The ship is still being outfitted in the port city of Horten and is expected to begin autonomous operation late this year. The ship won’t operate fully autonomously for at least two more years, according to a report at Electrek.

The Yara Birkeland, as the ship is called, has a cargo capacity of 120 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and a maximum speed of 13 knots (about 15 mph). The world’s largest container ship, the HMM Algeciras, has a capacity of 23,964 TEUs and a top speed of around 26 mph.

While Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) has kept a low profile for the past couple of days, another Elon Musk company had a grand opening Tuesday. The Boring Company’s Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) Loop opened for business. The 1.7-mile tunnel connects the new LVCC West hall with the three existing halls.

For now, the Tesla vehicles operating in the LVCC Loop will have drivers and be restricted to a top speed of 35 mph.

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