Lordstown, unjuiced: the buzzy e-truck startup runs into a truckload of trouble

Hold the hard seltzers... Summer isn't starting off well for Lordstown Motors. The e-truck startup went public via SPAC merger in October, and has been teasing its much-hyped "Endurance" electric pickup since last June. Those were better days for Lordstown.

• Last week: Lordstown said it doesn’t have enough cash to start commercial production (it hasn't sold a truck yet), and warned it has “substantial doubt” about its ability to survive the next year.
• Yesterday: Lordstown's CEO and CFO resigned (not encouraging), and the stock plunged 19%.

The "I told you so" award goes to... Hindenburg Research. It's the same short-selling firm that dropped a 67-page report accusing Nikola of exaggerating the readiness of its e-truck tech, calling it "an intricate fraud" (see: truck-rolling-down-a-hill commercial). Nikola's CEO resigned soon after, and the stock has fallen 40% since.

• In March, Hindenburg released a report alleging Lordstown misled investors by exaggerating its production readiness and biz potential.
• In January, Lordstown said the Endurance pickup already had 100K nonbinding preorders. Hindenburg did some digging and concluded those were “largely fictitious.” For example: Hindenburg found that companies without commercial fleets had preordered 1K trucks.
• The TLDR: Hindenburg believes Lordstown used “fake” orders to raise cash, and said its pickup was years away from production. Lordstown still says that it could start production by September.