Battling electric truck startup Lordstown Motors actually plans to deliver the first examples of its Endurance pickup truck before the year’s end, the organization said Tuesday, a day after it reported a new investment from Taiwanese agreement manufacturer Foxconn.
Lordstown said it is currently producing the Endurance at “a very slow rate” while it attempts to work out its assembly line and anticipates final regulatory approval to sell the trucks. The organization currently hopes to manufacture around 30 pickups for sale by year-end, and to finish the rest of the first batch of 500 trucks toward the finish of June 2023.
Lordstown said in late September that it expected to construct 50 trucks by year-end. Until now, it has finished 12 trucks.
Lordstown’s shares opened around 23% higher after the news.
The organization said late on Monday that Foxconn, which as of now owns a stake in Lordstown and purchased its Ohio factory for $230 million in May, will put an extra $170 million in three phases, with the first $52.7 million due not long from now. When those investments are finished, Foxconn will own around 18% of Lordstown and will have the right to assign two members of its board of directors.
Lordstown said it will use part of that investment to develop a new vehicle along with Foxconn. The organizations had recently reported a joint venture to develop a new model; the new funding replaces that joint venture.
The investment helps address an absence of capital that has frustrated Lordstown’s efforts to get the Endurance into production.
Lordstown previously told investors that its first batch of Endurance pickups will be restricted to a maximum of 500 vehicles on the grounds that the cost of building a pickup is right now “materially higher” than the organization’s expected selling cost. Extra investments in manufacturing tooling would cut the cost down, however CEO Edward Hightower has deferred those investments to protect cash.
Lordstown said Tuesday that it is actively looking for an automaker partner to assist with increasing production of the Endurance.
The updates came as part of Lordstown’s third-quarter earnings report. Lordstown, which doesn’t yet record revenue, revealed a net loss of $154.4 million, or 73 cents a share, including almost $75 million for noncash accounting charges.
The organization had $204 million in cash remaining as of quarter-end.
