Lordstown Motors to sell factory to company that makes iPhones: reports



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Lordstown Motors, which is trying to market an electric pickup truck but has been in dire straits lately, plans to sell its plant to Foxconn, the vast Taiwanese maker that makes electronics like the iPhone, according to reports.

It is according to Reuters and also Bloomberg:

Lordstown Motors Corp., the cash-strapped electric truck maker, is on the verge of a deal to sell its highly politicized Ohio plant to Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

The companies are expected to announce the pact as early as Thursday, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plan is not yet public. They did not disclose the value of the transaction. Lordstown Motors struck a deal with General Motors in late 2019 to purchase the plant the automaker opened in 1966.

[…]

A Lordstown Motors spokesperson declined to comment. Representatives for Foxconn did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Lordstown Motors shares rose 9% to $ 8.03 at noon Thursday. The business has lost nearly three-quarters of its market value over the past year.

One caveat here is that Foxconn was, at one point, will spend billions to make a factory in Wisconsin before it didn’t. Another caveat is that Lordstown, unlike Foxconn, has absolutely no proven track record as a business.

Still, it looks like a short-term boost for Lordstown, who needs all the money he can get. In the long run, it may be a site to make a Foxconn (Apple?), the site being probably attractive to Foxconn for the same reasons that it was attractive to Lordstown Motors. It’s not a turnkey electric vehicle assembly plant, but it isn’t starting from scratch either, given that it has been a GM assembly plant for decades. It might even have to do with Foxconn’s agreement with Fisker; the thing with production cars is that the proof is in the pudding.

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