Thanks President Trump. You came thru for Foxconn and Lordstown Motors.
Short history. GM closed their GM plant back in 2019. The CEO met with Trump and said there would be good news for the area. President Trump told the workers to stay in the area. Don't sell your house. There were 1,400 folks working there when the plant shut down.
Lordstown Motors stepped in and now you have 500 people working there. But GM also is building a battery plant next door that at this time has 500 workers. Will have 1,500 when the plant is finished.
Foxconn bought the plant from Lordstown Motors and they have gone into a partnership to build cars and trucks. As of May11, 400 of the 500 Lordstown workers are now Foxconn employees. But there's more.
Foxconn announced that they would build a car for Fisker at the Lordstown Plant. Another 1,000-1,500 jobs. Add the subcontractors and you now have over 5,000 jobs to replace the 1,400.
Lordstown Motors closes deal with Foxconn, putting former GM plant and 400 employees in new hands
By Sean McDonnell, cleveland.com
Lordstown Motors announced that is has closed on a deal with Foxconn to sell its former GM plant to the Taiwanese manufacturer. Foxconn will now manufacturer Lordstown’s Endurance pickup truck and take on hundreds of the automaker’s employees.
CEO Dan Ninivaggi told cleveland.com Wednesday that the deal gives Lordstown Motors scale. Partnering with Foxconn, one of the world’s largest manufactures, can ease supply chain issues, get vehicles to market quicker and make the process of doing so cheaper.“
The key theme in the entire transaction with Foxconn if it gives us a more flexible and less capital intensive business model,” Ninivaggi said.The news comes just days after an earnings call where Lordstown Motors executives said they had yet to reach a final deal. Hon Hai Technology Group, better known as Foxconn, and Lordstown Motors had been working on the deal since September.
If the two companies didn’t come to an agreement by May 18, Lordstown Motors would have had to pay about $200 million back to Foxconn.According to the terms announced by Lordstown Motors, Foxconn will pay $260 million in total for the Lordstown facility and hire about 400 of the EV manufacturer’s workers, with a large chunk of that money already paid.
The Endurance, the electric pickup truck designed by Lordstown Motors, will be manufactured by Foxconn at the Lordstown facility. Foxconn will be able to use the Lordstown facility to make vehicles both for Lordstown Motors and other electric vehicle brands.Lordstown Motors and Foxconn will also enter into a joint venture, where Lordstown Motors gets to use Foxconn’s vehicle design platform for new vehicles in the future. Lordstown Motors would make vehicles they could sell in North America, and Foxconn could sell those designs in other markets.
Foxconn will own 55% of the new venture and is committing $100 million to it, which includes a $45 million loan its giving to Lordstown Motors for its part of the new joint venture.
Commercial production of the Endurance is still scheduled to start in the third quarter of 2022, according to Lordstown Motors.Ninivaggi said the company will retain a significant presence in Lordstown, He said they’ll have many corporate functions there, but will also need engineers on the ground and near the plant. Lordstown Motors said will also keep staff in Michigan and California.He said getting the Endurance to market is still the top priority. Ninivaggi said it will be the second electric full size pickup truck on the market, and they expect it to do well once its in customers’ hands.
Almost of all the equipment in the Lordstown plant was sold to Foxconn, except for the hub motor line and battery module impact line, Ninivaggi said. Foxconn will operate both.Foxconn will not, however, own the Endurance truck design or other proprietary parts Lordstown Motors designed for the truck.“We did not transfer any IP (intellectual property) related to the Endurance as part of the transaction,” Ninivaggi said.
