Lordstown Motors Stock Drops in Light of Production Delays
LORDSTOWN, Ohio – Shares of Lordstown Motors Corp. fell more than 17% Friday in reaction to the company’s announcement that it would delay commercial production of its first product, the all-electric Endurance pickup.
Lordstown Motors stock, which trades under the ticker symbol RIDE, closed at $5.68 by the market’s close Friday, down 17.5% from the previous day.
The stock started to slide in aftermarket trading Thursday after the company said it would push back commercial production of the Endurance to the third quarter of 2022. It had stated in September that production was on target for the second quarter of that year.
Lordstown Motors CEO Daniel Ninivaggi blamed a shortage of raw materials, components and supply-chain disruptions as the reason for the production delay.
The RIDE stock slide continued through Friday.
It’s not the first launch delay for the Endurance.
Former CEO Steve Burns told reporters as late as March that production of the vehicle would begin in September and some 2,000 would be built by the end of the year. The CEO then announced in May that the company would cut production targets in half. Then, on June 8, the CEO clarified that it would begin “limited production” of the Endurance by September, noting it lacked sufficient funding to bring the vehicle to a commercial launch.
Burns resigned as CEO June 13 after an internal investigation found that executives had exaggerated the amount of preorders for the Endurance.
In September, the company revised its production timeline and said it would begin commercial production of the vehicle sometime during the second quarter of 2022 and complete its validation builds by January of that year.
Lordstown Motors stock jumped more than 24% on Thursday after the company announced it had signed an agreement with Foxconn to purchase its plant for $230 million.
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