{"id":209622,"date":"2021-10-01T10:46:53","date_gmt":"2021-10-01T14:46:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=209622"},"modified":"2021-10-01T10:47:27","modified_gmt":"2021-10-01T14:47:27","slug":"foxconn-buys-most-of-lordstown-motors-ohio-plant-for-230-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2021\/10\/foxconn-buys-most-of-lordstown-motors-ohio-plant-for-230-million\/","title":{"rendered":"Foxconn Buys Most of Lordstown Motors Ohio Plant for $230 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Troubled Lordstown Motors may have found a solution in the form of China\u2019s Foxconn, selling most of its Ohio plant to the company for $230 million. Foxconn also bought $50 million worth of stock in the battery-electric pickup maker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lordstown
Lordstown’s agreed to a $230 million deal giving Foxconn control of the company’s Ohio plant to build EVs.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The deal does exclude \u201cLordstown Motors\u2019 hub motor assembly line, battery module and packing line assets, certain intellectual property rights and other excluded assets,\u201d according to the EV company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the companies agreed Foxconn will ultimately take over manufacturing Lordstown\u2019s Endurance pickup and get first chance to produce future vehicles for Lordstown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are excited about the prospect of joining forces with a world-class smart manufacturer like Foxconn and believe the relationship would provide operational, technology and supply chain benefits to our company and accelerate overall scaled vehicle production and increase employment in the Lordstown facility,\u201d said Daniel Ninivaggi, who signed on as chief executive officer<\/strong><\/a> of Lordstown Motors Corp. a little more than a month ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe partnership would allow Lordstown Motors to take advantage of Foxconn\u2019s extensive manufacturing expertise and cost-efficient supply chain, while freeing up Lordstown Motors to focus on bringing the Endurance to market, developing service offerings for our fleet customers and designing and developing innovative new vehicle models.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Problem solved?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Lordstown
Lordstown CEO Dan Ninivaggi said partnering with Foxconn will help it with its manufacturing needs.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The deal seemingly resolves issues for both parties. Lordstown\u2019s financial struggles are well documented and despite some additional investors joining its ranks<\/strong><\/a> in recent months, speculation still swirled about the company\u2019s viability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result of the agreement, the company updated its financial outlook and production plans. The company increased its expected SG&A expenditures as well as its research and development spend by a combined $35 million due to rising costs for legal fees, prototyping and other expenses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, its cash balance may drop to between $210 million and $240 million due to its payout of $20 million of common stock related to the company\u2019s equity purchase agreement. The good news is that will be offset by Foxconn\u2019s $50 million stock purchase \u2014 in short, there\u2019s a cash infusion that will further stabilize Lordstown\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also gives Foxconn the foothold in the U.S. it has been seeking for much of the past year. Foxconn Chairman Liu Young-way told reporters in March, the company was considering building an EV in Wisconsin<\/strong><\/a>. It already invested $10 billion into the site that was supposed to build televisions in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin in 2017. It sits largely idle now. However, he also noted that Mexico was a possibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving from iPhones to iCar?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Foxconn’s deal with Lordstown allows it to build the Fisker PEAR, its second EV, expected to arrive in late 2023, at the Ohio plant too.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The Wisconsin plans haven\u2019t come to fruition, but Foxconn needed to do something because it\u2019s got a deal in place to build nascent EV maker Fisker Inc.\u2019s second vehicle<\/strong><\/a>, after the Ocean, which is being produced by Magna. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently dubbed Project PEAR, which stands for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution, calls for producing a battery electric vehicle that will costs less than $30,000 by 2023. Plans call for Fisker to work with Foxconn on a new lightweight platform designated \u201cFP28,\u201d leveraging technological expertise from each company to support project and potential future vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That vehicle now looks like it will be built at the Lordstown facility, at least according to Henrik Fisker, head of the EV maker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA long exciting day!\u201d he tweeted. \u201cI talked to the chairman of Foxconn today; we agreed: Foxconn\u2019s announcement today about its new EV manufacturing plant in Ohio could mean an earlier launch of the PEAR.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What isn\u2019t being spoken about is the what other products could be coming in the future. Foxconn, which is best known for producing iPhones for Apple, could also look to partner up with Apple on another project \u2014 Apple\u2019s much rumored car. Dubbed Project Titan, the personal technology giant has been talking with a few automakers about moving from the drawing board to the assembly line, including Hyundai Motor Group most recently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Could an established relationship with Foxconn and available plant space finally bring the iCar or whatever it may be named to life? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Troubled Lordstown Motors may have found a solution in the form of China\u2019s Foxconn, selling most of its Ohio plant to the company for $230 million. Foxconn gets a place to build Fisker Inc.\u2019s second all-electric offering, currently dubbed the PEAR for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution. Get details at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":209630,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,10,2648,9],"tags":[2079,395,2886,2885,2887,737],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209622"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209636,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209622\/revisions\/209636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209622"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=209622"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=209622"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=209622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}