Troubled electric car startup Lordstown Motors has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and issued litigation against Hon Tai Technology Group and Foxconn, the company that Lordstown sold its Ohio plant to and entered into a manufacturing agreement with.
Lordstown Motors claims that Foxconn has caused it material and irreparable harm and that it is commencing a comprehensive marketing and sale process for the Endurance pickup and all of its related assets. Following Foxconn’s purchase of the manufacturing site, the carmaker says it had contractual assurances that the iPhone manufacturer would support the introduction of the Endurance through a joint venture development program.
However, Lordstown now says that Foxconn had no intention of living up to its commitments and claims it used contractual arrangements to destroy Lordstown’s business in bad faith, all while “leveraging resources gained through the partnership to advance its own business interests.”
Read: Lordstown’s Electric Truck Lacks Endurance, Gets Disappointing 174 Mile EPA Range
“As one of the early entrants to the EV industry, we have delivered the Endurance, an innovative and highly-capable EV with significant commercial and retail potential – and had subsequently engaged with Foxconn in a purposeful, strategic partnership to leverage this expertise into a broader EV development platform,” Lordstown chief executive and president Edward Hightower described. “Despite our best efforts and earnest commitment to the partnership, Foxconn willfully and repeatedly failed to execute on the agreed-upon strategy, leaving us with Chapter 11 as the only viable option to maximize the value of Lordstown’s assets for the benefit of our stakeholders. We will vigorously pursue our litigation claims against Foxconn accordingly.”
By filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Lordstown is confident it can find a buyer who will use the Endurance as a “springboard” to launch their own EV. It adds that the right “buyer could utilize the Endurance platform to create multiple EV variants.” The carmaker also believes that its bankruptcy restructuring will expedite its litigation against Foxconn.
