Lordstown Motors (RIDE -2.70%) on Tuesday warned that it does not have enough cash to begin commercial production of its electric vehicle (EV), raising doubts about whether the company will be able to survive.
Lordstown has been developing an electric pickup called the Endurance, with initial plans to begin production this year. But the company's prospects were thrown into doubt last month when Ford Motor Company (F 0.17%) announced an electric version of its mainstay F-150 that is likely to eat into a lot of the potential demand for the Endurance.
Prototype of the Endurance pickup. Image source: Lordstown Motors.
In late May, the company slashed 2021 production plans and said it would need to raise capital. In an update to its 10-K annual report filed late Tuesday afternoon, Lordstown warned there is real risk the business might not survive.
"The Company believes that our current level of cash and cash equivalents are not sufficient to fund commercial scale production and the launch [of the Endurance]," Lordstown said in the filing. "These conditions raise substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least one year from the date of issuance of the consolidated financial statements included in this report."
Lordstown is one of a number of EV manufacturers to join public markets over the past year via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, a deal that helped it raise more than $600 million. But designing and scaling a vehicle is expensive, and as the amount of EV competition grows, the company could find it harder to access capital.
Shares of Lordstown had traded up as much as 17% on Tuesday before the announcement, but ended down 22%. The highly volatile shares are still up 30% over the past 30 days, but have now lost nearly half of their value so far in 2021.
