Just three days after Lordstown Motors chief executive Steve Burns and chief financial officer Julio Rodriguez resigned from the company, the electric startup is suddenly sounding quite hopeful.
In a regulatory filing made with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week, Lordstown said that it would not be able to start production of the Endurance pickup truck unless it raised more money. It also flagged survival problems.
Now, the company’s new executive team is portraying a much more optimistic view. Speaking during a news conference hosted by Detroit’s Automotive Press Association, Lordstown president Rich Schmidt claimed that the company will begin building the Endurance in late September and has enough money to last until May 2022. Schmidt added that the company is able to make 15,000 trucks over the next 24 months and said that Lordstown continues to look for new funding.
Read More: Lordstown Motors CEO And CFO Resign After Company Admits Inaccurate Pre-order Disclosures
“It’s a new day at Lordstown Motors, and there is no and will be no disruption to our plans to start production,” added Lordstown executive chairwoman Angela Strand, The New York Times reports.
Schmidt stated that when production of the Endurance starts in September, it will do so before the vehicle has passed all necessary crash and engineering tests needed to clear sale in the U.S. As such, vehicles that roll off the production line will be held until testing is complete and, if necessary, will be modified before they are sent to customers.
Following the departure of Steve Burns and a dozen other senior executives, Lordstown admitted that many of the pre-orders it has received are non-binding. However, Schmidt insists that the company does have binding orders for all the trucks it is expected to make in 2021 and 2022.
