Electric commercial light truck maker Lordstown Motors has filed for bankruptcy protection as it restructures its business.
It is also suiting business partner Foxconn Ventures for what it alleges was “fraud and willful and consistent failure to live up to its commercial and financial commitments to the company.”
The company is looking to sell its Endurance electric pickup and related intellectual property as part of the restructuring.
“As one of the early entrants to the EV industry, we have delivered the Endurance, an innovative and highly capable EV with significant commercial and retail potential – and had subsequently engaged with Foxconn in a purposeful, strategic partnership to leverage this expertise into a broader EV development platform,” Edward Hightower, CEO and president of Lordstown said in a statement.
“Despite our best efforts and earnest commitment to the partnership, Foxconn willfully and repeatedly failed to execute on the agreed-upon strategy, leaving us with Chapter 11 as the only viable option to maximize the value of Lordstown’s assets for the benefit of our stakeholders. We will vigorously pursue our litigation claims against Foxconn accordingly.”
Under the deal, Lordstown divested its most valuable assets to Foxconn, including an Ohio manufacturing plant. But Lordstown said Foxconn didn’t deliver on its commitments to follow through with a joint venture vehicle development platform. The lawsuit alleges Foxconn didn’t intend to live up to its comments with respect to the new vehicle development platform.
“Foxconn simply used its variety of contractual arrangements with the company as a tool to maliciously and in bad faith destroy Lordstown’s business — while leveraging resources gained through the partnership to advance its own business interests,” the lawsuit claims.
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