Lordstown Motors Halts Production, Deliveries for Endurance E-Trucks

Lordstown Motors announced on Thursday that it will be suspending its production and deliveries for its electric Endurance pickup truck as they address performance and quality issues with its certain components.

US-AUTOMOBILE-LAYOFFS-POLITICS-GM — The Lordstown Motors factory is where GM once operated, in Lordstown, Ohio, on October 16, 2020. The old GM factory has been acquired by Lordstown Motors, an electric truck startup that wants to build a full-size pickup called Endurance. - Workers at the General Motors factory in Lordstown, Ohio, listened when US President Donald Trump said companies would soon be booming. But two years after that 2017 speech, the plant closed. GM's shuttering of the factory was a blow to the Mahoning Valley region of the swing state crucial to the November 3 presidential election, which has dealt with a declining manufacturing industry for decades and, like all parts of the US, is now menaced by the coronavirus. MEGAN JELINGER/AFP via Getty Images

Halting Production & Deliveries

Since its last production update in January, Lordstown Motors has been experiencing performance and quality issues with certain components of its Endurance pickup electric trucks. Due to this, the company will temporarily halt production and deliveries to assess these issues.

As per their released statement, the company will be working with suppliers to know the root cause of each issue and come up with potential solutions, which may include design modifications, retrofits, and software updates.

The company also filed paperwork with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as they work together to address a specific electrical connection issue for Endurance, as it could result in a loss of propulsion while driving.

This recall will affect 19 vehicles that are either in the customers' hands already or being used by Lordstown for its operations. Deliveries and processes at the manufacturing will temporarily be retrofitted at the Ohio plant, which the company purchased from General Motors last 2019.

Engadget reported that the company did not release nor confirmed an estimated date as to when the production and deliveries will resume. But the company claims that there is a significant progress on component and subsystem issues that has been halting the production process.

CEO's Statement

President and Chief Executive Officer Edward Hightower stated, "We remain committed to doing the right thing by our customers and to resolve potential issues before resuming production and customer shipments."

He added that Lordstown Motors aims to provide a more detailed update on the status of these issues for its upcoming earnings call on the morning of March 6th.

CNBC reported that shares of Lordstown Motors fell 11% to $1.09 following the announcement of halting its production and shipments. Compared to its peak last September 2020, this is far from the all-time high of $31.80 a share.

Lordstown spokeswoman Colleen Robar confirmed these problems but clarified that it did not result in any fires like battery issues just this month with an electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup. She did not confirm how many vehicles in total the company has produced and deliveries since production began in September.

Also Read : GM Sold its Stocks on Lordstown Motors worth $75 Million, But Why?

Compared to other automakers, Lordstown's halted operations can be considered a small problem. Tesla just announced safety issues that may cause a crash to its electric vehicle owners. The company is now recalling a total of 362,768 vehicles regarding this issue.

Among the affected models are the 2016-2023 Tesla Model S, the 2020-2023 Model Y, and the 2017-2023 Model 3. All of these models are with Full Self-Driving Beta.