Workhorse Secures Financing To Purchase GM Lordstown Plant
7
Sponsored Links
American commercial vehicle company Workhorse has secured the funding necessary for it to purchase the former GM Lordstown production site, Vice President Mike Pence told reporters this week.
Speaking to ABC News 5 Cleveland, VP Pence indicated that Workhorse had locked in the financing necessary to buy the plant and that the Trump administration was trying to support to sale in order to bring some jobs back to the Youngstown, Ohio area.
“As you know after GM made that announcement, President Trump made it clear that we wanted to see GM do better,” he said. “We are very pleased that they stepped forward. Workhorse, I learned just this week, secured the financing to move forward to keep jobs in that community and we’re going to continue to look for ways to support that.”
Workhorse previously announced it June that it had secured $25 million in funding to support the development of new electric vehicles. Experts estimate the company needs around $300 million to buy the large Lordstown site, where it plans to build an unannounced EV of some type.
Workhorse previously showed off prototypes for an electric pickup truck with a range-extender and the company is also one of several developing an electric mail van prototype for the United States Postal Service. Only the company that develops the USPS’ preferred van will win the $6.3 billion contract, which could prove to be crucial to the plant sale going through.
The UAW must also approve the sale of the GM Lordstown facility to Workhorse in order for it to happen. The union is attempting to get new product allocated to the facility and it is believed that it will be a contentious issue throughout its contract talks with GM. The UAW’s contract with the Big Three expires in mid September.
Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill is waiting to hear from GM or the UAW on the matter and isn’t sure which direction the talks are headed in at the moment.
“I’ve heard so many rumblings and so many things that right now I’m just waiting to hear from the UAW and GM,” he said.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more UAW news and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Source: News 5 Cleveland
- Sweepstakes Of The Month: Win a Corvette Z06 and 2024 Silverado. Details here.
Sponsored Links
It is still a slap in the face that GM shut this plant down, all while bringing new models to production and building them elsewhere.
Hey, not all of the GM jobs will be coming back, but if Workhorse can even put a portion of those people back to work, I’ll take it. Something is better than nothing.
Workhorse is an extremely small manufacturer of specialty vehicles. They’ll probably need to close this giant plant again.
Yes, unless another very large company with the need for a lot of space comes along, Workhorse cannot fill the entire plant.
I don’t see why GM didn’t just bid a Postal Bolt for the Gov. No financing overhead and the $6B would offset the losses in current Bolt sales.
My feeling is this deal will prevent a better option from taking the site. I just don’t have a good feeling about this company this early into this technology.
I’ll wait until Workhorse makes their announcement regarding financing AND their next moves, thank you!
The only way for this venture to work and get the buy-in of the UAW would be:
1) GM has an equity stake in the venture including leasing the plant and employees to Workhorse
2) GM allows Workhorse to sell and service their vehicles at GM Commercial Truck dealers