Lordstown Motors Pushes Back Deliveries of Endurance

LORDSTOWN, Ohio – Electric-vehicle manufacturer Lordstown Motors Corp. said Thursday that it would push back deliveries of its Endurance pickup truck to the third quarter of next year.

Earlier projections from the company said deliveries of the all-electric pickup would begin during the second quarter of 2022.

Lordstown CEO Daniel Ninivaggi said that component and supply-chain issues contributed to the delay. 

“Since the beginning of the fourth quarter, we have begun building the first of what we expect to be approximately 100 pre-production vehicles that we will use to pursue a variety of validation activities aimed at achieving full homologation,” Ninivaggi said. “This is a modest delay from earlier expectations as component and material shortages, along with other supply chain challenges, remain an issue for Lordstown Motors just as they are for the industry at large. We now expect that commercial production and deliveries of the Endurance will begin in the third quarter of 2022.”

In its earnings report released after the close of trading Thursday, Lordstown posted a third-quarter loss of $95.8 million. The company said it expects to have between $150 million to $180 million in cash by Dec. 31. This is inclusive of a $100 million down payment from Foxconn as part of an asset purchase agreement whereby Foxconn would purchase the manufacturingiplant for $230 million.

The company also announced Thursday that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Cox Automotive Inc. that is designed to provide service and support to all Lordstown vehicle customers.

“The third quarter marked a significant strategic shift for Lordstown Motors,” Ninivaggi said in a statement.

“Our partnership with Foxconn will unlock the tremendous potential of the Lordstown automotive plant, enable us to reduce the overall cost of bringing the Endurance to market, and position us to be able to jointly develop vehicles with a partner that has significant scale, manufacturing expertise, and a commitment to electric vehicle manufacturing as one of its key global strategic priorities. As part of the transaction, LMC and Foxconn have agreed to pursue a joint venture to jointly design and develop commercial vehicle programs for North America and internationally using Foxconn’s “MIH” open EV platform. Working collaboratively with Foxconn, we expect to be able to bring future vehicles to market faster and more efficiently,” Ninivaggi said.

“In the third quarter, we continued to build and test prototype vehicles,” he continued. “We also continued to execute on our ‘commercial fleet first’ strategy, and have received additional non-binding indications of interest from a number of commercial customers, including fleet management companies. We have a unique vehicle in the biggest part of the market targeting commercial customers. As such, we believe that as potential future customers demo our vehicles, interest in the Endurance will grow, laying the groundwork for building out our order book.”

Lordstown’s stock prie soared on Thursday, posting a 24% gain to $6.90 per share by the market’s close. By midday, however, the stock had crested above $7 per share. Shares were down 7% in after hours trading following the release of third quarter earnings.

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