Last week, a research firm said that Lordstown Motors has been faking orders and is in fact years away from production, none of which was terribly surprising for former President Donald Trump’s favorite automaker. Today, Lordstown revealed that the report prompted the Securities and Exchange Commission to ask some questions.
All of this was in the context of the release of its fourth-quarter and full-year 2020. Lordstown reported a loss of $101 million for 2020, it said, and it said it expected another big loss this year. It also said it remained on track to begin production in September, to make the Endurance the first mass-produced all-electric truck in America.
Lordstown is currently what is known as pre-revenue and pre-sales, since it does not have a product to sell.
From The Verge:
“We want to take a moment and acknowledge that we are aware of the short-seller’s report,” CEO Steve Burns said on an earnings call Wednesday, before disclosing the SEC inquiry and the internal review. “That is all we can say, and we cannot comment on this during the Q&A period following this call, or any follow-up questions and conversations, until the special committee has finished its review.”
Lordstown also said Wednesday that it would do a van next, which will be unveiled sometime this summer, and on the earnings call CEO Steve Burns mentioned that there would be a third vehicle as well, possibly a big SUV. Executives attributed the recent Endurance fire to “human error” in the manufacturing process.
“We’re prepared to get all the way to the promised land with the funding we have,” Burns said. “There is no company on Earth six months away from entering into mass production … of a full-size electric pickup.
“We are maniacally focussed on bringing a car to maturity and to production in September,” he added.
Which is, of course, far sooner than the three-to-four years away from production that the Hindenburg report estimated. Well, one of them is wrong. We’ll find out which this fall.
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