Lordstown Motors now says that it has no binding orders for EV truck

Lordstown Motors said on Tuesday that its Endurance electric pickup truck would enter limited production later this year, with Lordstown President Rich Schmidt telling journalists that the company had "binding orders" that would fund production until May 2022.

The company provided this statement just days after it issued a "going concern" warning and a day after it parted company with its CEO and CFO. But on Thursday morning, Lordstown sent the US Securities and Exchange Commission a new Form 8-K revealing that those binding orders are nothing of the sort.

Lordstown explains in the 8-K that since March 2021, it has been working with a company called ARI Global Fleet Management, which is owned by the Holman dealership group. Fleet management companies sometimes lease vehicles to their customers, and Lordstown and ARI have been working to "co-market and co-develop business opportunities with our respective customers" with the hope that ARI would persuade some of its leasing clients to order the Endurance EV pickup truck.

Since then, Lordstown says it has been trying to work with other fleet management companies and companies that upfit work trucks to persuade their clients to order fleets of Endurances. Lordstown says these agreements typically run for three to five years and include a projected order schedule over that time.

However, Lordstown also says that the agreements "do not commit the counterparties to purchase vehicles." With regard to Schmidt's comments during the press conference, the company says that "although these vehicle purchase agreements provide us with a significant indicator of demand for the Endurance, these agreements do not represent binding purchase orders or other firm purchase commitments" and "to date, we have engaged in limited marketing activities and we have no binding purchase orders or commitments from customers."