As Lordstown was privately navigating the Foxconn deal, it was publicly pausing production and deliveries of the Endurance and recalling 19 pickups, both in customer hands and in use internally, for an electrical connection defect. As of January, the company had assembled 31 Endurance pickups and delivered six vehicles.
In May, a “non-salable” vehicle in storage apparently used in crash tests caught fire, an echo of an Endurance road test in 2021, which resulted in a fire that the company attributed to human error.
Before the bankruptcy put its legal troubles on hold, Lordstown was fighting a lawsuit from Karma Automotive, which alleges that Lordstown poached Karma employees and stole trade secrets. It also faced shareholder lawsuits and received two subpoenas from the SEC regarding preorders of vehicles, according to the company’s regulatory filings and the hearing this week.
The hearing also revealed that Lordstown has had confidential settlement talks with the SEC.
Abuelsamid said the Endurance also has a more straightforward problem — it’s simply not competitive. Its range and payload are below the industry standard. The 2023 Endurance gets 174 miles of range compared with the 2023 Ford F-150 Lightning 4WD’s 240 miles, according to the EPA, and the Endurance has a targeted maximum payload of 1,100 pounds compared with 2,000 pounds for the Lightning.
Its stated competitive advantage, wheel-hub motors that are meant to increase maneuverability, rely on wiring subject to intensive wear and tear, Abuelsamid said.
Lordstown has also been undercut by legacy players such as Ford and GM, which have dealership and service networks catering to commercial customers.
Commercial customers “need vehicles that are reliable, and when there is an issue, they need a support network that can quickly get the trucks fixed and back on the road,” said Abuelsamid.
“This is a new manufacturer with no experience, no history — to the degree that there is a history, going back to Workhorse Group, it has been a pretty bad history in terms of reliability.”
Now, the company’s future hinges on the sale of that vehicle technology.
Whether any automaker will buy the Endurance and its assets, which Lordstown says is “a fully homologated and certified, production-launched vehicle that can serve as a springboard,” remains to be seen, but Hightower appears undeterred.
“You look at any company or any organization that has a long history, you’ll find periods of ups and downs,” he said. But Lordstown has “really focused on building a culture around integrity, discipline and collaboration.”
“Foxconn not living up to their agreement has really stymied or stifled that work,” he added.
Reuters contributed to this report.
