GM in converses with offer covered Lordstown processing plant to Workhorse for EV pickups
GM in Converses with Offer Covered Electric-Truck Startup Lordstown: The $375M Saga That Became a Cautionary Tale
Let's be honest: when General Motors announced it was selling its shuttered Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant to a startup electric-truck company in 2019, the news landed like a lifeline in the Rust Belt. After all, this was the plant that had churned out millions of Chevrolets since 1966—the Impala, the Caprice, the Cavalier, and most recently the Cruze—before GM idled it in March 2019, eliminating nearly 1,700 hourly jobs and devastating the Mahoning Valley economy. President Donald Trump had denounced the closure and threatened to take action against GM. The UAW had gone on strike in part over the plant's fate. So when Lordstown Motors Corp. stepped forward with a plan to hire 400 production workers and build the Endurance electric pickup truck, the relief was palpable. "We will locate our headquarters in the Lordstown plant, and we plan to build the Endurance pickup truck utilizing experienced workers who helped produce millions of vehicles in this very same plant," declared CEO Steve Burns. "The people of Lordstown and the plant are and will be the history and future of the auto industry."[reference:0]
Fast forward to 2026, and that lifeline has snapped, frayed, and been tied into a knot so tangled it would make a sailor weep. The Lordstown plant—all 6.2 million square feet of it, nearly twice the size of the Pentagon—has changed hands four times in seven years, been at the center of a SPAC fraud scandal that cost investors millions, seen its flagship electric truck produce just a handful of vehicles before being recalled, and is now being converted into an artificial intelligence data center. Meanwhile, GM itself has returned to Lordstown in a very different way: with a $2.3 billion Ultium Cells battery plant that employs 1,300 people and is producing the batteries that will power the next generation of electric vehicles. The story of GM's Lordstown plant is not a simple tale of a factory saved or lost. It's a saga of hype, fraud, global supply chains, and the brutal economics of the electric vehicle revolution. And it's a story that is still being written.
"We, along with Workhorse, remain dedicated to keeping vehicle production in Lordstown. Now, with LMC's acquiring of the Lordstown, Ohio, factory, it is time to begin executing on our plan."
The 2019 Deal: A "Fully Functional Plant" and a $52,000 Promise
To understand the Lordstown saga, you have to rewind to the fall of 2019. General Motors had just emerged from a bitter 40-day strike with the UAW, and the fate of four U.S. plants—including Lordstown—hung in the balance. GM's refusal to move production from Mexico to keep Lordstown open was a major factor in the union's decision to strike, but in the end, GM held firm. The plant would not be revived with GM's own production.[reference:2]
Enter Steve Burns, a serial entrepreneur who had previously founded Workhorse Group, an electric delivery truck company that was one of five finalists for a lucrative $6.3 billion U.S. Postal Service contract to build 180,000 next-generation mail delivery trucks. Burns, along with an investment group called Lordstown Motors Corp., had been in talks with GM since the spring of 2019. On November 7, 2019, the deal was finalized: Lordstown Motors acquired the entire 6.2 million-square-foot plant, plus all the robots and equipment inside, for an undisclosed price.[reference:3][reference:4]
"Normally all the equipment has been stripped out. This is the first time I've heard of anyone getting a fully functional plant," Burns marveled at the time. "The only way we can do this is if we buy a ready-to-build factory."[reference:5] The plant was, in effect, a turnkey operation—a rare opportunity for a startup to hit the ground running without the years of construction and permitting that typically plague new automotive ventures. Burns promised to start building the Endurance electric pickup truck by late 2020, with a target price of about $52,000 and a range of at least 200 miles.[reference:6][reference:7]
The Endurance was designed for fleet sales, with a lightweight, all-wheel-drive system that used four in-wheel hub motors—one at each wheel. Lordstown Motors licensed components from Workhorse Group, and the two companies were closely affiliated, though Workhorse held no ownership stake in Lordstown Motors.[reference:8][reference:9] Workhorse's stock shot up more than 30% on the news of the deal.[reference:10] GM, for its part, expressed optimism: "We believe LMC's plan to launch the Endurance electric pickup has the potential to create a significant number of jobs and help the Lordstown area grow into a manufacturing hub for electrification."[reference:11]
But even in those heady early days, the warning signs were there. Burns admitted that the company had enough money to buy the plant but would need to fundraise "for a while" to cover retooling, development, and homologation.[reference:12] The Endurance would face growing competition from established automakers and other EV startups: GM had announced plans to build an electric pickup at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant; Ford was planning an electric F-150; and Tesla was about to unveil its Cybertruck.[reference:13][reference:14] The startup's window of opportunity was narrow, and the road ahead was treacherous.
The SPAC Boom and the Fraud That Followed
If 2019 was the year of the deal, 2020 was the year of the SPAC. Special purpose acquisition companies—blank-check firms that raise money from public investors to merge with a private company, taking it public without the scrutiny of a traditional IPO—became the vehicle of choice for a wave of EV startups hoping to cash in on Tesla's stratospheric valuation. Lordstown Motors was no exception. In October 2020, the company went public through a merger with DiamondPeak Holdings Corp., raising approximately $675 million and valuing the startup at $1.6 billion. Burns was euphoric: "We are now a public company with a strong balance sheet."
But the SPAC boom had a dark side: it allowed companies with little revenue, no production history, and in some cases, outright fraudulent claims, to access public markets with minimal due diligence. And Lordstown Motors, it soon emerged, was among the worst offenders. In March 2021, the short-selling firm Hindenburg Research published a scathing report accusing Lordstown of "faking" orders for the Endurance. The report alleged that the company had claimed 100,000 pre-orders from commercial fleets when, in reality, many of those "orders" were non-binding expressions of interest from tiny companies with no ability to actually purchase the trucks. One alleged customer, Hindenburg noted, operated out of a residential apartment and had no fleet vehicles whatsoever. Lordstown's stock plunged, and the SEC and Department of Justice opened investigations.[reference:15]
The allegations proved to be devastatingly accurate. By June 2021, Lordstown had admitted that it didn't have enough cash to begin commercial production of the Endurance, and it warned that there was "substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern." Burns and Chief Financial Officer Julio Rodriguez resigned. The company's share price plummeted from a high of over $30 to less than $2, costing investors hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2024, the SEC charged Lordstown Motors with misleading investors, and the company agreed to pay $25.5 million in disgorgement to settle the charges. Burns and other executives were also sued by shareholders, and a $10 million class-action settlement was distributed to investors in 2025.[reference:16][reference:17]
The Endurance itself fared little better. Despite all the hype, Lordstown Motors managed to produce only a handful of trucks—fewer than 100, according to most estimates—before production was halted. In early 2023, the company issued a voluntary recall of all Endurance trucks sold, citing a potential loss of propulsion. The "innovative and highly-capable EV" that Edward Hightower, Lordstown's final CEO, had touted had become a footnote in the annals of EV startup failures.[reference:18][reference:19]
"Despite our best efforts and earnest commitment to the partnership, Foxconn wilfully and repeatedly failed to execute on the agreed-upon strategy, leaving us with Chapter 11 as the only viable option to maximise the value of Lordstown's assets."
Foxconn Enters—and Exits—the Picture
As Lordstown Motors spiraled toward bankruptcy, a new player entered the stage: Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics giant best known for assembling iPhones. Foxconn had been aggressively expanding into electric vehicle manufacturing, seeing it as the next great growth opportunity after smartphones. In 2022, Foxconn agreed to purchase the Lordstown plant from Lordstown Motors for $230 million, with plans to use the facility as its North American EV manufacturing hub. The deal included a separate $170 million investment agreement in which Foxconn would provide capital to Lordstown Motors in exchange for preferred stock.[reference:21]
For a brief moment, it seemed like the Lordstown plant might get a third life. Foxconn planned to build not only the Endurance but also the Fisker Pear, an affordable electric crossover from another EV startup that was struggling to find manufacturing capacity.[reference:22] The vision was ambitious: turn the former GM plant into a multi-brand contract manufacturing hub, churning out electric vehicles for a variety of companies that didn't want to build their own factories.
But the partnership quickly soured. Lordstown Motors alleged that Foxconn failed to follow through on its $170 million investment commitment, leaving the startup without the capital it needed to continue operations. In June 2023, Lordstown Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and simultaneously sued Foxconn, alleging fraud and breach of contract. "Foxconn wilfully and repeatedly failed to execute on the agreed-upon strategy," Hightower declared.[reference:23] The bankruptcy court allowed nine of Lordstown's claims against Foxconn to proceed, including fraud and breach of the investment agreement.[reference:24]
Foxconn, for its part, didn't stick around long. In August 2025, the company sold the Lordstown plant to Crescent Dune LLC, an entity formed in Delaware just weeks earlier, for $375 million—a $145 million profit on the $230 million it had paid Lordstown Motors.[reference:25][reference:26] Foxconn said the sale was intended to "optimize the plant's product mix and operating performance," but the shift in strategy was clear: Foxconn was pivoting away from manufacturing electric vehicles in Lordstown and toward AI data centers.[reference:27][reference:28] The plant that had once symbolized the future of American EV manufacturing was now slated to become a hub for artificial intelligence.
As of April 2026, Foxconn has officially completed the sale to Crescent Dune LLC, though the company says it will continue to operate the facility and produce electric vehicles. The exact nature of Crescent Dune's plans remains opaque—the company is a Delaware LLC with little public information—but the broader message is unmistakable: the Lordstown plant's journey as an EV manufacturing hub is, at best, on indefinite hold.[reference:29]
GM's Parallel Path: The $2.3 Billion Ultium Battery Plant
While the Lordstown assembly plant was changing hands and mired in scandal, General Motors was quietly executing a very different plan just a few miles away. In December 2019, just weeks after selling the assembly plant to Lordstown Motors, GM announced it would build a $2.3 billion battery cell manufacturing plant in Lordstown in partnership with LG Energy Solution. The joint venture, called Ultium Cells LLC, broke ground in 2020 and began producing battery cells in 2022.[reference:30][reference:31]
The contrast could not be starker. Where the Lordstown Motors venture promised 400 jobs and delivered fewer than 100 trucks, the Ultium Cells plant has employed approximately 1,300 people and, as of December 2024, had produced its 100 millionth EV battery cell. The facility, which stretches across 156 acres and occupies more than 2.8 million square feet of floor area, has an annual capacity of more than 30 gigawatt hours—enough to power hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles.[reference:32][reference:33]
But even GM's battery plant has faced headwinds. In early 2026, Ultium Cells announced it would cut about 1,300 jobs at the Lordstown plant as electric vehicle sales slowed across the country. The company said it was "adjusting production in response to recent changes in customer plant demand."[reference:34][reference:35] GM also sold its stake in a nearly completed Ultium Cells plant in Lansing, Michigan, to LG Energy Solution in late 2024, suggesting that even the most established players are recalibrating their EV investments in the face of slower-than-expected adoption.[reference:36]
Still, the Ultium Cells plant represents a genuine, tangible investment in Lordstown's future—one that has created far more jobs and economic activity than the Lordstown Motors venture ever did. And unlike the assembly plant, which has changed hands four times in seven years, the battery plant appears to have a stable, long-term future, even if production volumes are being adjusted in the short term.
The Timeline of a Tangled Legacy
The Lordstown plant's journey over the past seven years is a case study in the volatile economics of the electric vehicle transition. Here is how the ownership of the 6.2 million-square-foot facility has changed hands:
| Year | Owner | Key Event |
|---|---|---|
| 1966–2019 | General Motors | Plant produces millions of vehicles; idled in March 2019, eliminating ~1,700 jobs. |
| 2019–2022 | Lordstown Motors Corp. | Acquires plant for undisclosed price; SPAC merger values company at $1.6B; fraud allegations surface; only ~100 trucks produced. |
| 2022–2025 | Foxconn | Purchases plant for $230M; plans to build Endurance and Fisker Pear; partnership with Lordstown collapses; plant idled. |
| 2025–present | Crescent Dune LLC | Purchases plant for $375M; Foxconn says it will continue to operate the facility; plans shift toward AI data centers. |
Meanwhile, the broader EV startup landscape has been littered with failures. Lordstown Motors is far from alone. Nikola, the hydrogen truck startup whose founder was convicted of fraud, filed for bankruptcy in 2025. Canoo, which claimed a massive Walmart order that never materialized, followed suit. Proterra, Arrival, and Quantron all collapsed as well. The common threads: fraudulent or misleading claims about orders and technology, an inability to scale production, and a funding environment that turned hostile as interest rates rose and investor patience wore thin.[reference:37]
The Bigger Picture: Why the Lordstown Saga Matters
The story of the GM Lordstown plant is not just a local Ohio story. It's a microcosm of the broader forces reshaping the global auto industry. The electric vehicle transition is real, but it is not a simple, linear march toward a greener future. It's a messy, volatile, and often brutal process that has left a trail of bankruptcies, frauds, and dashed hopes in its wake.
For the people of Lordstown, the saga has been a rollercoaster. The plant's closure in 2019 was a body blow to the Mahoning Valley economy, which had already been hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs for decades. The promise of Lordstown Motors offered a glimmer of hope—a chance to be at the forefront of the EV revolution. But that hope was built on a foundation of hype and, ultimately, fraud. The plant's subsequent ownership changes have created more uncertainty than stability, and the shift toward AI data centers, while potentially creating new jobs, is unlikely to replace the thousands of high-paying manufacturing positions that were lost.
GM's Ultium Cells battery plant has been a more reliable anchor, but even that investment is not immune to the vagaries of the EV market. The January 2026 job cuts at the battery plant are a reminder that the transition to electric vehicles is not a one-way street; it will ebb and flow with consumer demand, government policy, and the competitive landscape.
For the broader auto industry, the Lordstown saga offers several lessons. First, the SPAC boom of 2020-2021 allowed unproven companies with little more than a PowerPoint deck to access public markets, and the results were predictable: fraud, failure, and billions in investor losses. Regulators have since tightened SPAC rules, but the damage was done. Second, the barriers to entry in automotive manufacturing are immense. It takes billions of dollars, years of development, and a level of operational expertise that most startups simply do not possess. Even established players like Foxconn have struggled to make the economics work. Third, the market for electric pickups, once seen as a massive untapped opportunity, has become fiercely competitive, with Ford's F-150 Lightning, GM's Chevrolet Silverado EV, Rivian's R1T, and Tesla's Cybertruck all vying for market share. There is little room for a startup with a troubled history and a recalled product.
Finally, the Lordstown saga underscores the human cost of industrial transitions. The workers who once built Chevrolet Cruzes and Caprices at the plant have seen their livelihoods upended not once but multiple times. Some have found jobs at the Ultium Cells battery plant, but many have not. The economic ripple effects—on suppliers, on local businesses, on schools and tax bases—are still being felt. "Nothing's ever going to replace the 5,000 jobs in the GM plant and all the spinoff jobs," said Tim O'Hara, president of UAW Local 1112, back in 2019. "For the Mahoning Valley, any job is a good job."[reference:38] Seven years later, those words still ring true—and the search for good jobs continues.
The Road Ahead: What Comes Next?
As of April 2026, the Lordstown assembly plant's future remains uncertain. Foxconn says it will continue to operate the facility under Crescent Dune's ownership, but the shift toward AI data centers suggests that its days as an automotive manufacturing hub may be numbered. The Ultium Cells battery plant, while facing its own headwinds, remains a significant employer and a critical piece of GM's EV supply chain. The Mahoning Valley has not been abandoned, but it has been transformed.
The broader electric truck market, meanwhile, continues to evolve. The failures of Lordstown Motors, Nikola, and others have not stopped the momentum toward electrification, but they have tempered the hype. Established automakers—Ford, GM, Ram, and Toyota—are now leading the charge, leveraging their decades of manufacturing expertise and deep supply chains to bring electric trucks to market. Rivian, one of the few EV startups to survive the shakeout, is producing the R1T at scale and has a major contract to build electric delivery vans for Amazon. The "new entrants" that were supposed to disrupt the industry have, for the most part, been disrupted themselves.
When this article was first published in 2019, the sale of the Lordstown plant to a startup electric truck maker was hailed as a triumph of American ingenuity and a sign that the Rust Belt could reinvent itself for the electric age. The reality has been far messier. The plant has changed hands four times, the startup has gone bankrupt, and the original promise of 400 jobs building electric pickup trucks has given way to a $2.3 billion battery plant and a pivot to AI data centers. The story of GM's Lordstown plant is not a simple tale of success or failure. It's a story about the collision of hope and hype, the brutal economics of manufacturing, and the enduring importance of a place called Lordstown, Ohio—a place that has been making things for nearly 60 years and, in one form or another, will likely continue to do so for decades to come. Just not in the way anyone expected.
Key Takeaways: The GM Lordstown Plant Saga
- GM sold its shuttered Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant to EV startup Lordstown Motors in November 2019: The 6.2 million-square-foot plant was sold with all equipment intact—a "fully functional plant" that CEO Steve Burns called a rare opportunity. The startup promised to build the Endurance electric pickup truck, priced at $52,000, and hire 400 workers.[reference:39][reference:40]
- Lordstown Motors went public via SPAC in 2020, valuing the company at $1.6 billion: But a 2021 short-seller report alleged the company had fabricated pre-orders, leading to SEC and DOJ investigations. The company admitted it lacked cash to begin production, and its stock collapsed.[reference:41]
- The Endurance pickup truck was a commercial failure: Fewer than 100 trucks were produced before production was halted and all sold vehicles were recalled in early 2023. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2023.[reference:42][reference:43]
- Lordstown Motors sued Foxconn, alleging fraud and breach of a $170 million investment agreement: The bankruptcy court allowed nine claims to proceed, including fraud and breach of contract.[reference:44][reference:45]
- Foxconn purchased the plant for $230 million in 2022, then sold it for $375 million in 2025 to Crescent Dune LLC: Foxconn's plans to use the plant as an EV contract manufacturing hub—building the Endurance and the Fisker Pear—never materialized. The plant is now shifting toward AI data centers.[reference:46][reference:47]
- GM itself returned to Lordstown with a $2.3 billion Ultium Cells battery plant: The joint venture with LG Energy Solution has employed approximately 1,300 people and produced its 100 millionth battery cell as of December 2024. However, in early 2026, Ultium announced it would cut about 1,300 jobs amid slowing EV demand.[reference:48][reference:49][reference:50]
- The Lordstown plant has changed hands four times since 2019: From GM (1966–2019) to Lordstown Motors (2019–2022) to Foxconn (2022–2025) to Crescent Dune LLC (2025–present). The plant's future as an automotive manufacturing hub is uncertain.[reference:51]
- Lordstown Motors agreed to pay $25.5 million to settle SEC charges over misleading investors: A $10 million class-action settlement was distributed to shareholders in 2025. The SEC found that the company made "materially false and misleading statements" about the Endurance truck.[reference:52][reference:53]
- Lordstown Motors is part of a broader wave of EV startup failures: Nikola, Canoo, Proterra, Arrival, and Quantron all collapsed between 2024 and 2025, brought down by a combination of fraudulent claims, an inability to scale production, and a hostile funding environment.[reference:54]
- The saga is a cautionary tale about the SPAC boom, the barriers to automotive manufacturing, and the human cost of industrial transitions: The Mahoning Valley has been transformed, but the search for stable, high-paying manufacturing jobs continues.[reference:55]
Sources and Further Reading
- CNN Business (2019): GM sells its Lordstown plant to an electric pickup truck startup — Original coverage of the 2019 sale and Steve Burns's comments.[reference:56]
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (2019): GM sells its Lordstown plant to an electric truck startup — Details on the Workhorse affiliation and the Endurance truck.[reference:57]
- Fox Business (2019): GM sells shuttered Ohio plant to electric truck startup — GM's statement on the sale and the plant's economic impact.[reference:58]
- Electrek (2019): GM just sold its Lordstown plant to an EV startup affiliated with Workhorse — Analysis of the Workhorse relationship and the Endurance's design.[reference:59]
- Financier Worldwide (2023): Electric truck maker Lordstown files for Chapter 11 — Lordstown's bankruptcy filing and lawsuit against Foxconn.[reference:60]
- CarBuzz (2025): GM's Old Lordstown Plant Just Can't Catch A Break — Timeline of plant ownership changes and Foxconn's $375M sale.[reference:61]
- Gadgets Now (2026): Lordstown Motors news archive — Foxconn's $230M purchase and the collapse of the investment agreement.[reference:62]
- Compliance Week (2026): SEC charges Lordstown Motors with misleading EV investors — $25.5 million settlement for false and misleading statements.[reference:63]
- BatteryIndustry.net (2024): Ultium Cells Lordstown Factory Produces 100th Million EV Battery Cells — Production milestone for GM's battery plant.[reference:64]
- NewsBreak (2026): Ultium Cells facility expected to become GM's lone EV battery hub — 1,300 job cuts announced in early 2026.[reference:65]
- Sohu (2026): 哪些卡车新势力已经出局？(Which truck startups have failed?) — Overview of EV truck startup failures, including Lordstown Motors.[reference:66]
- Channeliam (2026): Crescent Dune acquires Lordstown plant from Foxconn — The latest sale of the Lordstown facility.[reference:67]
- ET Auto (2025): Foxconn sells Lordstown car factory for $375 million — Details on Foxconn's exit and pivot to AI data centers.[reference:68]
- TradingView (2025): Investors Can Still File Late Claims for Lordstown Motors $10M Settlement Payouts — Class-action settlement for shareholders.[reference:69]
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