How Bankruptcy Affects The Future Of The Lordstown Endurance Electric Pickup Truck

Lordstown Motors started out with a bang. Its Endurance pickup was featured at the White House in 2020 with President Trump praising the design. “This is incredible”, Trump said in describing the truck. Trump went on to describe the benefits that the company would bring to Lordstown Ohio, with the founder Steve Burns claiming 100,000 trucks would be built in the Lordstown plant. Senator Rob Portman from Ohio said that Lordstown would hire 1,100 people that year, and the area would newly be christened, “Voltage Valley”. However, Lordstown Motors did not create a “voltage valley”. None of this happened.

Lordstown did not sell 100,000 trucks. It did not hire 1,100 people. It did not do anything but go bankrupt, and get sued and investigated by the SEC. Yet, miraculously, it seems that the Endurance pickup will live on in spite of all of this. Burns has somehow snuck the assets out of the failing company, and brings them to a new home in his newest venture LandX. Here’s what we know about the Lordstown debacle and the future of the Endurance pickup.

In order to give you the most up-to-date and accurate information possible, the data used to compile this article was sourced from manufacturer websites and other authoritative sources, including C-SPAN, Reuters, Hindenberg Research, Automotive News, and The SEC.

Lordstown Motors Filed For Bankruptcy In 2023

Lordstown Motors launched in 2018, with its Endurance Pickup planned to go to market in late 2020. Then it pushed back the release date of the electric truck to 2021. Then it pushed the release date back to 2022, after selling its factory to Foxconn, and agreeing to have Foxconn be the contract manufacturer of the pickup.

The failure to get to market completely undermined the entire mission of the company. Lordstown’s goal was to be the first American EV pickup on the road. However, during the time of its delays, the Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T were available to the public first. The truck actually hit the streets in late 2022, but almost immediately had a recall due to a propulsion issue. If all of this wasn’t bad enough, Lordstown filed for bankruptcy in June 2023.

Lordstown Motors Had A Bevvy Of Financial Issues

Lordstown had entered into a deal with Foxconn to receive $170M. Foxconn, however, only invested ~$57M to acquire an eight-percent stake in Lordstown. Lordstown sued Foxconn over the gap in payment. Lordstown claimed that Foxconn consistently changed the requirements in the agreement to achieve payment. At the same time it filed the Foxconn lawsuit, Lordstown filed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company intended to be sold to a bigger player in the space.

Before the bankruptcy, in 2021, the research firm Hindenberg published a report that blew the whistle on Lordstown’s shady business practices. Lordstown repeatedly claimed, even to the President of the United States, that it had orders for 100,000 trucks. However, these orders were by and large not real. Many firms and consultants were paid to create orders that they never intended to fill.

Other businesses simply took advantage of the no-cost, no-obligation reservation system to make themselves look better by being tied to Lordstown’s electric truck. The wake of this report caused a seismic shock in Lordstown’s C-Suite. Steve Burns, the founder, sold his entire share and the CFO resigned.

Lordstown has never been a financially stable company, and once the layers are pulled back, it appears the EV maker is closer to a fraud operation than a car company. Lordstown was a bell cow for a change in the EV market. Per Reuters:

“The bankruptcy of Lordstown signals that the days of successful EV startups is in the rear-view mirror,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman at hedge fund Great Hill Capital. “Moving forward it will be Tesla and the traditional incumbents … that will duke it out for market share.”

This is bad news for companies like Rivian and Fisker, if this is true. However, we tend to think that other small EV makers are not quite on the level of Lordstown’s scheming and plotting.

The Company Was Sued By Karma Automotive

Beyond internal issues, Lordstown also had issues with other EV companies. Karma, a green automaker, alleged that Lordstown poached employees from Karma and stole trade secrets as well. Karma originally sued Lordstown for $900M. However after the bankruptcy news, Karma accepted a $40M settlement. Rather than try and bilk the penniless company out of money it didn’t have, Karma took what it could get, including a $5M royalty for the use of infotainment technology.

Lordstown Has Also Run Afoul Of The SEC

Lordstown’s troubles don’t end with lawsuits and bankruptcy. We cannot claim to know whether Lordstown is guilty, but it certainly has been accused of committing crimes against its investors. Here’s what we know about the SEC charges.

The Company Has Been Charged With Misleading Investors

The SEC has said the following on Lordstown’s actions:

“We allege that, in a highly competitive race to deliver the first mass-produced electric pickup truck to the U.S. market, Lordstown oversold true demand for the Endurance,” said Mark Cave, Associate Director of the Division of Enforcement. “Exaggerations that misrepresent a public company’s competitive advantages distort the capital markets and foil investors’ ability to make informed decisions about where to put their money.”

The SEC announced these charges on February 29th, 2024. So nearly a year after the bankruptcy, the hits keep coming for Lordstown. Not only has Lordstown had to pay millions in court settlements and debts, it now deals with criminal charges for its underhanded business tactics. I

In this SEC case, Lordstown has already agreed to pay $25.5M to the SEC in a cease-and-desist and disgorgement order. However, this payment does not include an agreement or denial of the SEC’s findings. The SEC’s investigation is still ongoing, and there is no telling where this could wind up.

The Lordstown Endurance May Live On

Despite all of this nefarious dealing, the Endurance pickup truck is not quite dead. In fact, it looks like Lordstown itself is not even dead. Lordstown has emerged from bankruptcy, as a new corporation called NuRide.

NuRide is already trading on the stock market and opened at $2.80 per share. Not only does the actual Lordstown company live on, but so does the Endurance. Due to some opportunistic purchasing during the bankruptcy, the Endurance pickup will still be produced, though under a new name.

Steve Burns, Lordstown’s Founder, Has Bought Assets From The Bankrupt Company And Founded LandX, An EV Company

Steve Burns founded Lordstown, and is not done with his pursuit of an electric pickup truck. In January 2024, Burns announced that he had started a new EV startup called LandX. LandX claims to be the “future of mobility”. This is a rather ridiculous claim, as the basis of the entire company is a failed pickup that could not get to market before its competitors.

It is completely unclear what LandX’s market plan is. It does not even have a new name for its pickup. It does not have a price, an order system, or really even a way to manufacture the trucks, as Foxconn currently owns the plant that built the Endurance, not NuRide or LandX.

It seems unlikely Foxconn would enter into a deal with a company that is so closely tied to one that sued them within the last twelve months, and is run by someone who could not adequately deal with Foxconn in manufacturing EVs in the past.

LandX Is Marketing Pickup Trucks Identical To The Endurance

On LandX’s website, there are pictures and videos featuring the Endurance. This is not simply a truck that looks similar to the Endurance, or making use of the same body, it literally bears a Lordstown logo right on the site. This is extremely confusing, as LandX is apparently a wholly new company to both the failed Lordstown, and the new company, NuRide.

Simply put, we are not sure what is going on with the Endurance. We do not know what the future for the Endurance is because Steve Burns has not made any concrete moves as to what will happen with the truck. The new company LandX does appear to seek to create more electric pickups that are based entirely on the Endurance’s build, but whether it will be the exact same truck (including the name) we are unsure. Unfortunately, almost every party involved here is a mess, and it is difficult to discern the future with these players.