Cars and Drivers

Will Lordstown Go Out of Business?

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Lordstown Motors Corp. (NASDAQ: RIDE), the electric truck company, posted poor earnings Tuesday, and its shares were crushed. They peaked at $31.80 but at last look traded for $8 or so apiece. Lordstown Motors lost $125 million and had $587 million of cash on its balance sheet.
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Speaking about its Endurance product, the board chair and chief executive, Steve Burns, made a terrifying observation:

However, we have encountered some challenges, including COVID-related and industry-wide related issues, as we progress towards our start of production deadline. These include significantly higher than expected expenditures for parts/equipment, expedited shipping costs, and expenses associated with third-party engineering resources. We secured a number of critical parts and equipment in advance, so we are still in a position to ramp the Endurance, but we do need additional capital to execute on our plans. We believe we have several opportunities to raise capital in various forms and have begun those discussions.


The term “believe” is far shy of encouraging.

Lordstown has struggled for several months now. It also faces a small army of class action suits. As Jalopnik noted:

Lordstown seems destined to be a failure. This is almost like a dare, the last swings of a boxer before knockout. It wouldn’t really be notable except Burns has previously talked a lot of shit about how advanced Lordstown would be by the end of this year.

 

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