GM CEO Mary Barra Says No To New Vehicle At Lordstown, Courts Ohio Senators To Support Workhorse Deal
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General Motors CEO Mary Barra delivered a blunt scenario to any laid-off Lordstown assembly plant worker: there isn’t going to be a new vehicle made there. At least, not a GM vehicle.
Barra made the comment during an interview with Reuters on Wednesday. The GM chief was also in Ohio to try and woo the state’s two U.S. Senators, Republican Rob Portman and Democrat Sherrod Brown, to support a potential sale of the Lordstown plant to electric-car startup Workhorse.
The potential Workhorse deal has been a punching bag for pundits after combing through the company’s balance sheet and its actual potential to operate at the massive facility. Barra dismissed any idea that the Workhorse sale talk is a PR stunt and said GM vetted numerous opportunities before honing in on a potential sale to a new company formed with Workhorse.
Meanwhile, Ohio’s senators haven’t been keen to the deal. The Vindicator, a local newspaper, reported Senator Brown, in particular, said “We want to see GM in this plant,” and called on Barra to allocate an electric car to the facility. Barra dismissed any idea of building an electric car in Ohio.
The Ohio congressional delegation had plenty of questions surrounding the potential Workhorse deal and walked away with only a few answers. The entire deal is still shrouded in mystery as Workhorse works to begin a new entity to purchase the plant. Essentially, the Lordstown plant buyer only exists on paper.
Workhorse itself undercut its potential a day before President Trump inaccurately tweeted GM had already sold the plant. GM later that day confirmed it was in discussions with Workhorse and had not finalized a deal, which would need the UAW’s blessing.
“Our existing capital resources will be insufficient to fund our operations through the first half of 2019,” Workhorse said in its most recent financial filing. “If we are not able to obtain additional financing and/or substantially increase revenue from sales, we will be unable to continue as a going concern.”
The latter portion translates to “we need funding, or we close up shop.”
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Source: Reuters, The Vindicator
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The Senator’s right, it’s a BS copout. Rake her over the coals for this.
The Senator is not right. At this point, there is about a 2% chance that GM will ever operate the Lordstown Plant again(At least not under the GM name). The best result for the region is to create jobs in the plant, even if those are not the best paying Union jobs.
What GM has done, and how they run their business is a shame and smack to the face of the American Worker, but to think that the UAW & GM will start this plant back up is delusional at this point. The “New” GM is just the “New” Generation of the “Old” GM. Same Families, Same Greed, Same Corruption.
My guess is the “New Company” made from Workhorse is likely majority owned by GM, but that gives them leverage to not use the UAW, or at least leverage for a different pay structure like they have done with GM Subsystems LLC with the UAW.
typical corporate America.
Didn’t Barra say a few years ago that “we build em’ where we sell em”? Since GM only sells about 250k vehicles in Mexico a year, anything above that number can be repatriated to the US including Siera, Silverado, Terrain, Trax, and Equinox made for the US market. Problem solved.
Problem exacerbated by the Orange Pustule tariffs for his ego that YOU are paying for. The tariffs that that clown says China and Mexico are paying,uh no,WE are paying for HIS tariffs.
Why I don’t know, but I had high hopes for Barra. She is nothing more than Roger Smith with a bra.
On the Roger B comparison:
Yeah, I don’t even know if she’s that good.
Meanwhile the people of Ohio continue to buy GM products on a daily basis. Yep, makes perfect sense to me. Only in America folks!
What gets me, They only sold 30,000 Buick Envisions in 2018. In 2019, they had to pay the 25% tariff because it’s made in China. They have no plans to stop production. GM sold over 140,000 Cruze’s in 2018, but that’s not enough to make them continue production. These are US sales, not counting Canada. Look it up. This is all a money game. If the Cruze was made overseas, I would be willing to bet GM would still be selling Cruze’s. GM spent billions building plants, and retooling in S. Korea, Mexico, and China. I believe they planned to close those plants years ago.
JackW972
The Cruze is a victim of its own success. The 1st generation sold very well. Now that people are switching to crossovers, large numbers of used Chevy Cruzes are becoming available. Driving down resale values of all GM vehicles.
Same story with the Impala.
I think there’s something a little deeper going on here. GM doesn’t want to update this plant because of its size but they also don’t want to have to pay for the legacy cost being this is a very old plant there’s really no telling what kind of toxic waste is on the property only GM might know that. so their willing to sell to anyone even knowing they may not be in business a year from now. so GM gets rid of the cost of clean up the new company go’s broke and bang the tax payers end up paying for the clean up which could be hundreds of millions of dollars. this tactic has been done by several companies in the past but the powers that be never seem to catch on to it. I could be totally wrong only time will tell.
If that was all it was about, there are other ways to transfer ownership of the site to a new separate entity.
The state of Ohio should make GM completely tear it down with in 3 years
THERE LIES THE PROBLEM!!!!! WHATS ON HER MIND ? ” WATER ” ?
WORKHORSE CANNOT BUY THIS MASSIVE FACTORY. THEY ARE A TINY COMPANY THAT IS DEEPLY IN DEBT. THIS WORKHORSE STORY IS A COMPLETE JOKE. PLEASE STOP DECEIVING PEOPLE INTO THINKING THIS IT TRUE WHEN IT IS CLEARLY NOT
READ THIS: https://interactiveswingtrading.com/2019/07/12/wkhsworkhorse-and-lordstown-is-never-going-to-happen/
Fix is in for Lordstown. Not that it had a chance anyhow. All hail Mary and her Chinese overlords. Lets see what other lies The Great Pumpkin comes up with , besides bringing in an electric truck company with a handful of employees that makes a profit of $72 a day.