Lordstown’s electric pickup plans hit another snag as CEO and CFO resign

Lordstown Motors is again finding itself in hot water on the road to try to bring to market its ambitious electric pickup as both the CEO and CFO are leaving.

The company was founded out of a deal to take over GM’s Lordstown factory just a few years ago, and it plans to bring an electric pickup truck, the Lordstown Endurance, to production this year.

We previously stated that the timeline was extremely ambitious due to the fact that the factory needs to be completely retooled, and Lordstown is trying to bring to market the first passenger vehicle with in-wheel hub motors, which is an untested technology in pickup trucks.

Lordstown went public through a SPAC deal last year and saw its valuation soar to up to $4 billion.

The company saw its stock prices on several announcements, including the fact that they secured over 100,000 orders for their Endurance pickup truck.

However, things took a bad turn when those orders were exposed as exaggerated, and Lordstown’s first prototype caught on fire during its first drive.

The company has since been under increased pressure to deliver, and the chances for the Endurance to come to market this year have been going down fast.

Now, Lordstown is seen as spiraling out of control as both CEO Steve Burns and CFO Julio Rodriguez have announced that they resigned.

The company is spinning the news as a leadership transition as it moves from an R&D to commercialization phase:

“Lordstown Motors Corp. (Nasdaq: RIDE), (“Lordstown Motors” or the “Company”), a leader in electric light duty trucks focused on the commercial fleet market, today announced several changes to its executive management team as the Company begins to transition from the R&D and early production phase to the commercial production phase of its business.”

It’s a bigger deal than what they are making, it sounds like since Burns was basically responsible for the deal that led to the creation of the company as a spin-off of Workhorse, his other company, and the deal to acquire GM’s Lordstown factory.

Electrek’s Take

My hopes for Lordstown were never really high, but now, they are hitting an all-time low.

As an aside, isn’t it weird that GM is linked to deals with two of the arguably most controversial companies in electrification that have made big SPAC deals?

Next thing you know, GM is going to start working with Fisker.