Cash Incoming: Lordstown Motors to Merge, Go Public
The question of how fledgling EV maker Lordstown Motors plans to fund production of the Endurance pickup has been answered. On Monday, the owner of GM’s former Lordstown Assembly plant announced a merger with a blank-check company, with a cash-raising NASDAQ listing as its goal.
Lordstown Motors plans to finalize the merger with DiamondPeak Holdings Corp., which is already listed on the NASDAQ, by the fourth quarter of this year — after which the combined entity will carry the symbol “RIDE.”
With the merged companies valued at $1.6 billion, Lordstown expects to gain $675 million in gross proceeds from the deal. That’s money that’ll be put to use in a hurry, readying the Endurance for production in the second half of 2021, as well as funding concurrent production of the truck’s hub motors.
Lordstown says it has 27,000 pre-orders for the truck — a figure worth about $1.4 billion when translated into actual sales.
“We are thrilled with the opportunity to build Lordstown Motors into a top-tier electric truck company that is highly differentiated from the competition,” said Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns in a statement. “We are uniquely positioned to be a leader in the industry, with our first vehicle, the revolutionary Lordstown Endurance. Our all-electric full-size pickup truck delivers the equivalent of 75 miles per gallon and has been systematically engineered and competitively priced specifically for the large commercial fleet market, which includes companies in manufacturing, contracting, utilities, transportation and delivery, and agriculture, among others.”
The company’s aim, as Burns suggests, is to leave the high-zoot retail EV pickup game to the big players, focusing instead on an affordable alternative for fleet buyers. Simplicity will be key to keeping the vehicle’s price low and buyers interested. Burns said the model’s “streamlined and simplified design positions the Endurance to be one of the simplest and most cost effective vehicles on U.S. roads.”
We got our first glimpse of the Endurance in late June; since then, it seems the model’s ambitious production timeline has caught up to the company’s financial situation.
Mergers with special purpose acquisition companies are all the rage these days among wannabe EV makers, and with good reason. Lofty electric promises seem to send Wall Street into a explosion of euphoria that defies all logic. Look at the sky-high valuations of Tesla and would-be rival Nikola for proof. Noticing this, Fisker hopped on the SPAC bandwagon early last month to fund the production of its own electric crossover.
Now it’s Lordstown’s turn.
[Images: Lordstown Motors]
More by Steph Willems
Latest Car Reviews
Read moreLatest Product Reviews
Read moreRecent Comments
- Varezhka Suzuki Jimny, Toyota Century, and I know it technically just ended production but Honda e.
- CoastieLenn For those that care to read the details of the crash NOT included in this article but published elsewhere- this happened at nearly 10pm when the CRV was stopped in the center lane of travel, lights off, with the driver remaining in the car. Not only is it not known if Blue Cruise was being used, it would have been a nightmare for most alert human drivers to mitigate that driving the 70+mph speed limit on many sections of I-10 in Texas, much less an AV system.
- Jeff This is what I would want: Toyota has now released an affordable truck called the Toyota IMV 0. The newly developed vehicle made in Thailand comes with a rear-wheel drive and a gasoline 2.0-liter inline-four matched to a 5-speed manual transmission. NEW $10,000 Toyota Pickup Has Ford & GM Crapping ... YouTube · Tech Machine 8 minutes, 46 seconds Dec 26, 2023
- Jalop1991 At the same time, let's take these drivers off the road--at least the ones that haven't yet taken themselves off the road.I can guarantee, at no point was this guy or any of the dead Tesla-stans actually driving the car. They were staring at their phones, because, HEY, SELF DRIVING!!
- 3-On-The-Tree To Maintenance Costs His best friend did the union meetings and he said that there wasn’t a lot of negotiating taking place between the union and state because they were happy with how the state was treating them. He said it seemed more like a formality having the union.
Comments
Join the conversation
Well, dang. It was fun while it lasted. I'm ready to call for the Deathwatch party to start, as a former resident of the Valley I've seen these kinds of things happen before. Someone gets a sweet deal on some land or buildings, promotes some "gotta have it" product that they swear they will produce there... And then something happens; a merger, a change in the market, some other bullsh!t excuse... Within a year, we'll see if Lordstown Motors exists; we'll see if they pull a "Rivian" and move the money and/or brains of the operation out west or even further away. Way away from prying eyes... That will be the first sign. These shysters don't want to live in the cold, cloudy midwest... There will be various and sundry delays and design changes that end up delaying the product further. Until it blows away in the wind, just like an Elio. I've gone from being cautiously optimistic to full on Deatwatch 2010 mode. I hate to be so pessimistic, but having grown up in that part of Northeast Ohio, you learn to deal with this kind of thing. Another fly by night willing to take taxpayer money and run far, far away with it.
"an explosion of euphoria that defies all logic" Tesla: Produces actual product, 1 million+ so far, but no trucks yet. Nikola: Produces nothing, and is still hitched to the hydrogen Titanic. Fisker: Produces nothing; failed once before. Lordstown: Produces nothing. Rivian: Produces nothing; its newest hires may have stolen Tesla IP in their possession. Ford/GM: Very tentative steps to build electric trucks. Since they don't even need them, commitment will be lukewarm. Everybody is riding Tesla's coattails now, but few will succeed.