Foxconn to build electric vehicles for Lordstown Motors and Fisker at Ohio plant – TechCrunch

Foxconn will build electric vehicles for Lordstown Motors as well as its other partner Fisker Inc. at a former GM plant in Ohio, under an agreement announced Thursday.

Lordstown Motors, the besieged electric vehicle company that went public through a merger with a specialist acquisition company, said Thursday it has reached a non-binding agreement with Foxconn to sell its 6.2 million square foot plant. Lordstown bought the plant in 2019 from General Motors.

Under the deal, which has yet to be concluded, Foxconn will pay $ 230 million for the installation. The agreement excludes certain assets such as the Lordstown hub motor assembly line, battery modules and packaging line assets and certain intellectual property rights. Foxconn will also buy Lordstown common stock for $ 50 million.

The companies have said they will negotiate a contract manufacturing deal for Foxconn to assemble Lordstown’s full-size Endurance pickup truck at the site. The conclusion of a contract manufacturing agreement is a condition at the closing of the purchase of the installation. The parties have agreed to explore licensing agreements for other pickup truck programs.

The deal comes at a critical time for Lordstown Motors, a cash-strapped startup turned SPAC that made a series of missteps earlier this year. In August, the company hired Daniel A. Ninivaggi, a longtime automotive executive and former head of Carl C. Icahn’s holding company, as CEO and member of the board. The appointment came after months of turmoil within the company, including the resignation of founder and CEO Steve Burns. CFO Julio Rodriguez has resigned following a disappointing first quarter earnings report that found the company was consuming more capital than expected and was unable to meet previously expected production numbers for its Endurance electric van .

The goal of the partnership, the companies said in its announcement, is to present both Lordstown Motors and Foxconn with increased market opportunities in the production of scalable electric vehicles in North America. This includes Foxconn’s existing partnership with electric vehicle company Fisker Inc. (Lordstown and Fisker are separate companies and are unrelated.)

In May, Fisker signed an agreement with Foxconn to co-develop and manufacture a new electric vehicle under a program called Project PEAR. Production of the Project PEAR car, which stands for Personal Electric Automotive Revolution, will be sold under the Fisker brand in North America, Europe, China and India. Pre-production is expected to begin in the United States by the end of 2023 and then ramp up the following year, Fisker told TechCrunch in an interview in August.

Fisker did not disclose the manufacturing site in the United States. The final decision would rest with Foxconn, Fisker noted at the time.

Fisker released a statement on Thursday welcoming the Foxconn news.

“Achieving key program goals such as time to market, access to a well-developed supplier ecosystem, and overall cost targets were all important factors in the decision to locate manufacturing in the industry. Ohio, “Henrik Fisker said in an emailed statement. “Since signing the agreement with Foxconn earlier this year, we have worked together intensively on all aspects of the PEAR project, including design, engineering, supply chain and manufacturing. Today, Fisker’s commitment to volume manufacturing in the United States takes another important step forward with the signing of this agreement.

Fisker also has another vehicle program underway with another contract manufacturer. The Fisker Ocean SUV will be assembled by car manufacturer Magna Steyr in Europe. The start of production is still on track to begin in November 2022, the company reiterated in its call for second-quarter earnings. Deliveries will begin in Europe and the United States at the end of 2022, with a plan to reach a production capacity of more than 5,000 vehicles per month by 2023. Deliveries to customers in China are also expected to begin in 2023.