Workhorse CEO Provides More Insight On Lordstown Plans
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The CEO of Workhorse has provided more information as to the company’s plans for the former General Motors Lordstown Assembly plant site in which it plans to purchase.
Workhorse, an American commercial vehicle maker, actually only owns a ten percent stake in the company that wants to purchase the Lordstown plant. That company, the recently incorporated Lordstown Motors Corp., was started up by former Workhorse CEO Steve Burns and plans to build a version of the plug-in hybrid Workhorse W-15 concept pickup at the Lordstown plant.
“We are impressed with the Lordstown facility, and we have had great support from Workhorse, our technology partner and strategic partner, as well as General Motors,” Burns told The Detroit News in an e-mailed statement this week. “Our name, Lordstown Motors Corp., reflects the depth of the commitment we will make to the plant, the community and the state of Ohio once this deal is completed. We have started investor outreach, which is the next step toward launching our battery-electric commercial pickup.”
But while Workhorse itself isn’t planning on using the Lordstown plant for anything, the company is hopeful that its relation to Lordstown Motors Corp. will benefit it. Workhorse is currently one of half a dozen companies trying to win the contract to build electric delivery vehicles for the United States Postal Service, and by having access to the Lordstown plant via Lordstown Motors Corp., it thinks this may prop the company’s image up in the eye of the USPS. If Workhorse wins the USPS contract, it plans to build the electric postal vehicles at its existing plant in Indiana.
“From the beginning, we viewed what we’ll call as access to the Lordstown facility as a potential competitive advantage to further enable us to win the postal service contract, primarily just because of its size and so on, its ability to push through vehicles out of that plant. Not to mention, they’ve got 50-plus years of experience on how to build vehicles in that facility,” Workhorse CEO Duane Hughes told reporters during the company’s recent Q2 earnings call.
“We believe that combining our IP with the historic GM Lordstown facility will provide Workhorse with the greatest benefit in monetizing its pickup truck technology,” Hughes added. “‘In the end, we believe this will be the proverbial win-win,”
Workhorse reported a $37 million loss in Q2 on sales of only $6,000, down $171,000 year-over-year. The company’s financial standing has some questioning whether or not Workhorse or the company it has a minority stake in, Lordstown Motors Corp., have the means to purchase the former GM production site.
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I don’t see how this deal will succeed if the postal vehicle is not built at Lordstown. All of that plant just to build a few thousand EV pickups a year does not sound like a money maker.
the only thing this needs to accomplish is taking the plant off gm’s hands.
you wrote workhorse “plans to build a version of the plug-in hybrid Workhorse W-15 concept pickup at the Lordstown plant.”
but later you wrote workhorse “isn’t planning on using the Lordstown plant for anything”
which is it?
Name it the Copout, because that’s what it is for GM to leave the plant.
This is a win for GM to quietly move to Mexico and exit the Lordstown plant and it’s employees and a win for workhorse by getting funding to buy the Lordstown plant at taxpayers expense.
It is a loss for the town of Lordstown, the surrounding area, the state of Ohio and the USA and every taxpayer that bailed GM out of bankruptcy. Which totaled to $11 billion taxpayer loss. According to GM this plant is not capable of making large vehicles such as a truck. Big scam where elected officials will take credit for creating 400 low paying jobs but forget to mention they let 4500 GM plus thousands more good paying supporting jobs vanish.
Most GM closed plants, and there have been many, have had promises of repurposing plants that have simply not happened. GM Janesville, GM Mansfield, GM Delaware, GM Pittsburgh all had promises of new jobs but and all leveled. GM has new plants in China Mexico and Korea.
This is corporate America against the American worker.
Agreed. Why would GM pay a UAW worker in the US, $35 per hour to attach a car door, when they can pay a worker in China, $35 per week to do the same thing?
So you are stuck on the amount lost and blame GM? They didn’t tell the US when to sell the stock, the US sold low, the last of it barely getting $40 a share and earlier sales much lower. Many people advised them to hold on to it. Not to mention the entire bailout saved 1.2 million jobs and preserved nearly 35 billion in tax revenue. Huh, would have been great for the US economy and those workers you are so patriotic about and want to pay $50/hr to have GM just be shuttered… Get all your facts in a row before talking next time please.
Common. Yes. Sense. No.
Oh the facts are straight. No matter what excuse you have the fact is the taxpayers have $11 billion less due to the bailout. Just because you don’t like something doesn’t make it untrue. That’s what happen to people that get participation trophies. Maybe this Mary Barra?
This is the type of ‘excuse logic’ GM uses to violate contracts.
The bailout saved jobs. Yes. But the bailout wasn’t meant to support GM so they could offshore jobs.
The facts still are GM closed four plants in the US. How many did they close in China Korea and Mexico?
This is really going to be fun with the contract. Ford now employs more hourly employees that GM, and FCA is not far behind. FCA has already committed to 4,500 new US jobs, and Ford probably will make commitments for product at their US plants. The ball will then be in GM’s court and I am sure the GM/UAW membership is not going to vote on any contract that will not offer similar job commitments for at least Lordstown and Detroit-Hamtramck as well as GM’s other utilized plants like LGR and Orion.
It is clear that these plant “unallocations” were done with little thought of the political and economic ramifications, kind of like a dartboard approach. Now Barra is scrambling to make a big deal of minor investments in plants, using redundant PR, and scrambling to erase the damage she has done. All the while it makes her and GM look pretty damn bad.