Late taxes another troubling sign for Lordstown Motors Corp.
LORDSTOWN (AP) — Lordstown Motors Corp. owes nearly $630,000 in unpaid property taxes and penalties for the first half of 2021, records show.
Trumbull County Auditor records show the electric vehicle startup still owes $570,958.36 in property taxes between its four properties along Hallock Young Road, which came due March 5. It also owes a 10 percent late-payment penalty of $57,095.84, records show.
Records show Lordstown Motors also paid the second half of some of its 2020 property taxes days after the Aug. 5 deadline. This year, its tax bill carried over a nominal amount in delinquent taxes from 2020 on one of its parcels.
A company spokesperson told the Tribune Chronicle it's taking care of the taxes.
Lordstown Motors' failure to pay is yet another troubling sign for a company that has been barraged by bad news this year.
The company's stock has plummeted from nearly $31 a share on Feb. 11 to just over $10 on Tuesday in the wake of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry and the filing of four potential class-action lawsuits by investors who claim they have been defrauded.
The company appeared to be primed for success last June during a showcase event at the 6.2-million square foot plant, formerly the General Motors Lordstown Assembly Complex. Then-Vice President Mike Pence sat in the passenger seat of an Endurance prototype as it rolled onto a stage to hearty applause. Noisy, colorfully lit robots building nothing gyrated nearby.
The first drip of bad news came in January when an Endurance pickup truck prototype caught fire 10 minutes into its initial test drive in Michigan. A company spokesperson issued a statement afterward saying, "No one was hurt, and like all of our test findings, we do it to create a great product."
Company officials announced in January it had received more than 100,000 pre-orders for the Endurance and production was scheduled to begin this September, which critics claim is untrue.
Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns acknowledged during an earnings call in March that the SEC was conducting an inquiry based on a lengthy and hyper-critical report by the investment firm Hindenburg Research, which holds a short position on Lordstown Motors stock.
The shareholder lawsuits filed in Youngstown's federal court are largely based on the Hindenburg Research report, which says Lordstown Motors has "no revenue and no sellable product" and has "misled investors on both its demand and production capabilities."
The report and lawsuits say production of the Endurance is three to four years away based on information provided by a former employee.
Investors, business partners and former employees contend "the company's orders are largely fictitious and used as a prop to raise capital and confer legitimacy," one of the lawsuits claims.
A $735 million deal for 14,000 trucks the company announced earlier this year involved a purported buyer that doesn't operate a vehicle fleet and is based out of a small apartment building in Texas, according to the Hindenburg report.
Tim Grosse, the CEO of that company, E Squared Energy Advisors, told Mahoning Matters his company's mobility program acts as an intermediary between fleet operators and suppliers like Lordstown Motors.
E Squared's letter of intent for 14,000 Endurance vehicles suggests the company expects it could sell that many to its fleet customers, though he also admitted electric vehicle adoption by fleet operators is still "uncharted waters."
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Mahoning Matters reporter Justin Dennis contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 27, 2021 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Late taxes another troubling sign for Lordstown Motors Corp.."