LORDSTOWN, Ohio — Lordstown Motors' newly revised leadership team posed for a photo-op but took no questions Monday related to the company’s future as they kicked off Lordstown Week. This came as the Wall Street Journal reported that several company executives sold stock earlier this year before the company reported its first financial results.
Shares of the automaker closed down 5% Monday, one week after the company severed ties with both its chief executive officer and chief operating officer. The board chair said Monday they wanted the focus of these festivities to be on the truck itself, which goes into limited production in September.
Two weeks ago, that seemed in doubt when Lordstown Motors announced they were amending a financial statement to include a warning that they didn’t have the funds to begin production of the Endurance in the fall, as well the fact that the company might not have the funds to continue as a going concern.
It was a year this week the truck made its debut with then-Vice President Mike Pence riding shotgun. The company touted that day pre-orders of thousands of vehicles, enough to cover their first year of production. But last week, they finally acknowledged those orders were not firm. Today the media, potential investors and potential vehicle buyers got a behind-the-scenes tour at the former GM plant and the production process for the first of its kind all-electric pickup with motors based in each of the four tires that can recharge as you go.
“As you're coasting and not applying the accelerator pedal, it will start feeding back into the power source so you’re actually recharging the battery a bit as you coast without using acceleration,” said Quality Engineer Robert Roth. Roth, of Brecksville, worked over a decade ago in the old GM Plant; he’s excited to be back there on this project with an entirely different approach to how pickup trucks are made.
“We’re literally building our entire plant, everything about it from the ground up," he said. "I mean we’re taking the book and basically taking what’s useful and getting rid of what’s not and growing from it."
On Monday, Lordstown executives would not say how many vehicles will be made in the limited production this fall, but they did say they will continue to talk with potential investors and potential fleet buyers.
