The Lordstown Motors board has appointed Daniel A. Ninivaggi as its new CEO following the resignation of former CEO Steve Burns.
Ninivaggi is the former CEO of Icahn Enterprises L.P., the holding company controlled by billionaire investor Carl Icahn. While his most recent experience is in investments and finance, Ninivaggi has an extensive history in the transportation sector, having also served as the Executive Vice President of Lear Corporation, in addition to Co-Chairman and Co-CEO supplier Federal Mogul Holdings Corporation. He has also served on the board of directors for several major companies, including Navistar International, Hertz Global Holdings and CVR Energy.
In a statement, the 57-year old indicated the company remains laser-focused on bringing the battery-electric Lordstown Endurance truck to market, which will be mainly marketed toward fleet buyers.
“I believe the demand for full-size electric pickup trucks will be strong and the Endurance truck, with its innovative wheel hub motor design, has the opportunity to capture a meaningful share of the market,” Ninivaggi said in a statement. “With an absolute focus on execution, I look forward to working with the talented Lordstown management team, our suppliers and other partners to bring the Endurance to market and maximize the value of our assets.”
Ninivaggi joins Lordstown Motors just two months after former CEO Steve Burns resigned following an investigation into allegations that he lied about the number of preorders it had received for its Endurance electric truck. Burns had stated on multiple occasions that the company had received over 100,000 non-binding pre-orders for the truck, a claim that was found to be fictitious by a self-appointed Special Committee.
The probe into Lordstown Motors was sparked by a short-seller report published by Hindenberg Research, which said the Ohio-based start-up had “no revenue and no sellable product,” and had “misled investors on both its demand and production capabilities.” GM sold its Lordstown Assembly plant to the start-up in late 2019 for an undisclosed sum.
Lordstown is the second EV start-up loosely linked to GM to find itself in hot water. The automaker entered a strategic partnership with electric truck maker Nikola last September, however the deal fell apart after yet another Hindenberg Research report found the company had misled investors with regard to the capabilities of its technology. Former Nikola CEO Trevor Milton was later charged with three counts of criminal fraud for lying about “nearly all aspects” of the business.
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Comments
I thought these guys went out of business a long time ago.
Well, the company technically still exists, but it’s beyond me how anyone still at the company can honestly believe Lordstown will survive. The test vehicles broke down and went up in flames. Lordstown doesn’t have their own usable tech. F150 Lightning deliveries will be happening in short order at a price point well below Lordstown’s, what, $54,000 asking pricing.
Lordstown doesn’t have a product, and even if they did, not at a competitive price point. Anyone at Lordstown that thinks they are going to get some new investment money to keep things going is smoking something. Any investor that does throw money at Lordstown either doesn’t know what they are doing, is easily conned, or just simply in dire need of a tax write off.
I think Lordstown might be an interesting company to watch. They have financial and management problems and are barely hanging on. The management issues are due primarily to a past CEO who bloated “non-binding pre-order” numbers to pump up interest. This practice is in fact pretty common among EV start-ups, and until now just considered puffery, exaggerations that any reasonable investor shouldn’t depend on as fact. The CEO and CFO have resigned and I’ve noticed that the management is being taken over by high level execs from companies including Tesla. So I think the management situation is indeed improving. Auto journalists who have seen and have ridden in the Lordstown say it appears to be a viable product, that is, they couldn’t see any design issues in their brief time that would indicate that the Lordstown truck wouldn’t meet the fit for use criteria for the stated use claimed by the manufacture.
Their financial problems have to do with the running out of money to fund production. It’s important to understand that to get to this point they have completed a number of major accomplishments, such as finishing development and certification testing for EPA and crash testing. They’ve acquired the fourth largest automobile factory in the country and fully revamped it with state-of-art robotics and automated assembly equipment. In addition to building a relatively conventional truck they are also building in house, the frame, battery packs and hub motors. Their manufacturing concept is interesting, build a conventional truck using parts sourced from the GM parts bins or using GM suppliers. Eliminate the engine, trans, diffs, drive and half shafts and all supporting fuel, cooling and exhaust subsystems and replace them with a battery using the same batteries and cooling system design as Tesla and implicating an exclusive licensing agreement for the four hub motors which were developed by a Slovenian company with funding from the EU.
These hub motors are what I’m really interested in. If they do what is claimed they may revolutionize the industry. Four simple motors each individually controlled to provide torque vectoring for improved high speed handling, tighter turns and better traction. Each motor weighs about 75 pounds and puts out up to 150 hp and 1100 lb/ft of torque or 600 hp and 4400 lb/ft combined. They say the truck could be driven completely under water since they are sealed and don’t require air to operate. The mfg curb weight is only 4300 pounds so at max weight (GVW) it weighs less than an empty Ford Lightning, Or Rivian truck.
Lordstown says they are still on schedule to manufacture the first 500-1000 production trucks by the end of next month. A lot of the experts doubt that this is possible, but we only have to wait a month to see who’s right. If Lordstown produces as promised, securing financing should not be a problem. They’ve come an incredibly long way in a short time. I personally hope they succeed.
It will be great for Lordstown Motors to have this seasoned veteran at the helm. His experience with capital markets means the company will be able to do much more than just start limited production on the Endurance in Septwmber. They already had enough cash on hand to produce around 15,000 vehicles by May and this will open up a lot of doors beyond that. The truck has 4 moving parts. Not thousands like the vehicles we see being recalled by Ford and others.
Sorry David… but Lordstown is not likely to make it, although I did buy some stock last week at $4.90, made some quick money and got out.
So GM links with Lordstown and Nikola and not with Rivian.
Add sinfully ugly to the list of negatives! Lol Not in my driveway.
Does anyone know if Lordstown Motors still owes GM money?
No they don’t but you could of easily googled that yourself now couldn’t you.