Lordstown Motors postpones Endurance EV pickup production because of provider issues, shares fall

Commercial production and deliveries of Lordstown Motors first product, an all-electric pickup called the Endurance, are indeed being pushed back, the organization said Thursday.

The beset EV start-up said commercial production is presently expected to begin in the third quarter of the next year contrasted with the second quarter, because of an ongoing global issue with auto supplier and supply chains. Its the most recent deferral for the pickup, which was at first expected to start production about a year prior.

This is a humble postponement from prior assumptions as part and material deficiencies, alongside other store network difficulties, stay an issue for Lordstown Motors similarly as they are for the business at large, Lordstown CEO Dan Ninivaggi said in the companys second from last quarter monetary outcomes discharge.

The pre-revenue companys revealed deficiency of 54 cents a share for the third quarter was somewhat smaller than the deficiency of 59 pennies for every offer expected by investigators, as per estimates ordered by Refinitiv.

Shares of the Ohio-based automaker stay unpredictable. The stock is down almost 80% from its 52-week high of $31.57. Shares fell by 10% during afterhours trading Thursday, subsequent to acquiring 24% for the day to close at $6.89 a share.

The stocks performance Thursday was its best trading day on a percentage basis around a year. It was driven by Lordstowns plans, which were affirmed Wednesday, to sell its gigantic Ohio plant to Foxconn. The sale is important for a bigger deal where iPhone creator Foxconn will collect electric pickups for the cash-strapped organization.

The deal was at first declared in September. It will give capital to Lordstown, while giving Foxconn a kick off to producing EVs. Foxconn additionally has a deal with start up Fisker to produce EVs in the coming years.

“Our goal is to become a capital light, engineering, design and development company focused on producing multiple all-electric vehicle programs,” Ninivaggi told investors during a call Thursday. “In Foxconn, we gain a great partner that has a vision of an all-EV future and the resources to build a global vehicle engineering and manufacturing footprint.”

Parts of the plant are yet to be finished for production of the Endurance, as indicated by Ninivaggi.

All things considered, he said Lordstown began collecting pre-production Endurance models for testing and validation during the second from last quarter. It hopes to keep assembling the trucks through at minimum the first quarter of the next year.

Beside its financial difficulties, Lordstown is being scrutinized by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice with respect to its deal to open up to go public as well as potentially false or misleading statements from former management, including former CEO and founder Steve Burns.

Burns and his CFO left the SPAC-supported organization in June after an internal investigation found “issues regarding the accuracy of certain statements” around Lordstowns preorders, specifically the reality of the orders and who was making them.