Time running out for Lordstown Motors to complete Foxconn deal

Electric pickup truck startup misses deadline for plant sale

Ed Hightower, president of Lordstown Motors, with the Endurance commercial pickup truck. (Photo: Alan Adler/FreightWaves)

Cash-starved Lordstown Motors missed its deadline for closing the sale of its plant to Taiwan's Foxconn EV Technology Inc., a deal critical to the startup's execution of electric light-duty trucks focused on commercial fleets. 

The two agreed to an asset purchase agreement (APA) in November 2021. Under the deal, Foxconn would purchase the 6.2 million-square-foot Lordstown complex from LMC for $230 million.

The deal was supposed to close Friday. But is being held up by details of a contract manufacturing agreement under which Foxconn would build LMC’s Endurance pickup truck. It also would seek other projects to fill the massive Lordstown complex.

Foxconn has advanced $200 million to LMC, which must be repaid by May 14 if a deal is not reached. LMC does not have the money for the repayment. Foxconn could get most of LMC's assets if it cannot pay, LMC said in a press release Friday.

The payments from Foxconn to LMC were cleared by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) on April 9. CFIUS is an inter-agency government committee that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in U.S. companies or operations.  

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    Alan Adler

    Alan Adler is an award-winning journalist who worked for The Associated Press and the Detroit Free Press. He also spent two decades in domestic and international media relations and executive communications with General Motors.