General Motors has sold the Lordstown Assembly plant to Lordstown Motor Company for an undisclosed sum.
Lordstown Motor Company is an electric vehicle startup founded by former Workhorse CEO Steve Burns. The company is planning on building its first vehicle, the battery-electric Endurance pickup, at Lordstown Assembly.
According to Burns, Lordstown Motor Company will hire around 400 UAW workers starting next fall and will begin production of the Endurance by the end of 2020. Burns also said the unionized hourly workers will likely earn around $31 an hour – the top UAW wage.
Burns has already begun hiring the Lordstown Motor Company leadership team as well. Rich Schmidt, the former director of manufacturing at Tesla, was recently hired on as chief production officer for the new startup.
“We are committed to the people of Lordstown, we will locate our headquarters in the Lordstown plant, and we plan to build the Endurance pickup truck utilizing experienced workers who helped produce millions of vehicles in this very same plant,” Burns said in a statement.
GM released a statement this week saying it is “committed to future investment and job growth in Ohio and we believe LMC’s plan to launch the Endurance electric pickup has the potential to create a significant number of jobs and help the Lordstown area grow into a manufacturing hub for electrification.”
GM also plans on building a new battery cell production plant in the Lordstown/Mahoning Valley area as part of a joint-venture operation with another, yet-to-be-named company. The battery plant is expected to bring about 1,000 UAW jobs to the area.
“Lordstown Motors, along with GM’s planned battery factory in the area and other startups, are positioning Northeast Ohio as a hub for technology, which completely reshapes the future trajectory of the whole Mahoning Valley,” Youngstown State University President Jim Tressel said in a prepared statement. “Think of being in the epicenter of EV technology. We must take charge of our future.”
On Thursday, a UAW spokesperson told The New York Times the union is “committed to making sure there are quality and good-paying jobs” in the Lordstown area, but did not comment specifically on the Lordstown Motor Company acquisition. The startup took control of the plant on Thursday.
The Endurance pickup will be aimed at fleet buyers, with Burns saying he already has around 6,000 orders for the truck from 19 different companies. The truck follows in the footsteps of the Workhorse W15, which debuted as a working prototype last year. The W15 featured an electric powertrain and a 1.5-liter three-cylinder BMW engine as a range extender. Workhorse owns a 10-percent stake in Lordstown Motor Company and will license its electric drivetrain tech to the company for the Endurance.
The UAW had previously hoped to keep Lordstown Assembly open under the new national agreement with GM, but was only able to win new product allocation at Detroit-Hamtramck. Instead, GM told the union it would build the new battery plant in the Lordstown area and sell the Lordstown Assembly plant to Lordstown Motor Company. LMC could not complete its acquisition of the plant until the UAW contract had been ratified.
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Comments
I hope that between Lordstown Motors and Workforce they can sustain the Lordstown Plant. That city desperately needs it.
The truth is this may end up just another failed company unless they can get investors.
As for the area they will survive. They have lost way more steel jobs in the past and the Lordstown employed only a fraction of what they one did.
The Oil Fracking in the area has been a real boom and has done more to bring more money to the area than anything in decades.
The problem the area suffers is the Union Think. Companies come and look and then they locate in non union areas. This was a long time Democratic area with a strong Union base. The thinking is still there and most companies want to avoid it.
They used to have Jim Trafficant as a Rep in Washington. He was nuts but he was willing to work with anyone who would help. They now have Tim Ryan who has done nothing for them.
The truth is there are many more jobs in the last couple years than they have seen in a long time but no real large operations. They all have gone to the south.
Honda went to Marysville to avoid the unions in northern Ohio many more followed. Just look at Youngstown, Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Toledo. They all are shadows of what they once were.
One start up underfunded EV company with an over priced truck is not going to save them.
Many of the people at the plant also went to other GM facilities. They have been doing that for a long time as production was up and down over the years.
Many forget they used to build many more cars there as well as a Van plant. It was the largest complex in America for GM.
This is great news! Another EV truck maker in the U.S. to compete against Ford, Rivian, Tesla, and even against GM! More EV trucks will increase interest and eventually lower prices.
Didn’t Workhorse compete for the new USPS mail truck recently? And who won?
The Contract was delayed till 2020.
The CEO of workhorse says Lordstown is key to try to win the contract but what he also fails to state is if they fail to win the contract or another large contract the plant may be what kills them.
A bit of a gamble here.
Interesting that their first prototype was a supposedly a EREV (like the Volt). Any chance for some synergy there? Would be nice if the Voltec technology could be saved.
Let me introduce to my electric truck company Steak Motors. Who wants to pre-order some vehicles?
Everyone has a EV start up. LOL!
But how many will survive?
They’ll never produce a single one. This is already doomed. Mark my words
Workhorse stated earlier that they wanted to form Lordstown Motors Company with GM and an unnamed third party. Workhorse doesn’t have any money so the only thing they can offer is the intellectual property developed for the W-15 and NGEN (now C-series) van. GM didn’t deny these reports, so I think it is safe to believe that GM is more involved in this than just selling the Lordstown plant.
I have been watching to see if GM would provide the facility in exchange for a percentage of the company.
GM could also provide purchasing power sorely needed by Workhorse.
I thought they may have an announcement about it but then again they may be old it back to let Workhorse make the deal with the UAW and not GM. This would lead to a better Financial deal for the company.
Reports are the are still looking for investors.
I’m thinking GM would use the facility as a contact build like International for a model, that an the Oshawa test center still have an assembly line ready in case a new model comes along. All and all labor cost-cutting moves.
What a screwing GM gave America.
GM wants Americans to buy their cars but they don’t want them to make those cars. Shrinking American employment after America bailed GM from bankruptcy.
Well screw you back GM we just bought a new Jeep Cherokee. Made in USA.
I will NEVER buy GM products again.
Did you flunk high school geology? “America” consists of ALL the nations on this half of the Earth, and has two continents, North America and South America. So every nation (including the United States) in this part of the world is “American”, and any car that GM assembles between Canada and Chile is “American built” and belongs to GM, a U.S. brand. Same for Ford, too.
I am an GM customer since birth (as a passenger in a Chevy leaving the hospital in Manhattan, NY), and most of my cars are GM brands since 1975. So at least I believe that GM can still make great vehicles, but they need to be electrics or plug-in hybrids. I am watching Cadillac which will offer an electric SUV based on the XT5 by 2022.
I can see how you were easily confused so I’ll try to slow down for you. When I said ‘America’ I was referring to the United States of America. That is the country that lost 11 billion dollars when ‘America’ (when I say America from now on I mean the United States of America) rescued GM from bankruptcy.
Not Mexico not Bolivia or Brazil.
I guess your head is still messed up from trump getting elected.
I wonder how many Cadillacs gm sells to Venezuela now.
Your one of those paid by GM to spread more bs I’ll bet.
Tell Mary Barry I said hi.
Dear Sirs, I would like to buy from GM a car plant. I would like to buy from the GM a hungarian car assembly plant in Hungary Tatabanya.
Now for one Euro.
I will paying GM 1 000 Euros per sold Harashta car the next minimum ten years, year by year.
Yours Sincerely
Henrik Harasta
(Henrik Harashta)
Thank you for the information.