Lordstown Motors has emerged from bankruptcy with a new name and an almost singular focus: continuing its lawsuit against iPhone maker Foxconn for allegedly “destroying the business of an American startup.”
The company announced late Thursday regulatory filing that it has implemented a Chapter 11 restructuring plan recently approved by the Delaware bankruptcy court. This makes it one of the first EV startups to survive the bankruptcy process in some form, albeit a highly diluted one. Electric Last Mile Solutions liquidated in Chapter 7 proceedings in 2022, while IndiEV’s Chapter 11 process still playing in California. A decade ago, both Fisker Automotive and Coda were sold to other buyers in their Chapter 11 restructurings.
Now known as Nu Ride Inc., the reconstituted version of Lordstown Motors will also pursue “potential business combinations,” though it did not say what kind of mergers it is pursuing. The company has a few things to its name. It sold the former General Motors factory once owned by Foxconn. its electric truck-related assets were snapped up by Lordstown founder Steve Burns.
With the restructuring plan in place, Nu Ride is now led by an entirely new board and executive framework. It will now trade over the counter as ‘NRDE’.
The new company has two federal investigations and other lawsuits to resolve on top of its beef with Foxconn. The Securities and Exchange Commission recently accused the company of misleading investors about the potential success of its discontinued electric truck, forcing Lordstown to shell out $25.5 million to help settle some of the ongoing shareholder lawsuits. That investigation is still active, according to the agency, as is one by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Lordstown Motors sued Foxconn in June 2023 when it initially filed for bankruptcy. It claimed the Taiwanese conglomerate misled the startup about its plans to collaborate on a range of electric vehicles. The Lordstown lawsuit was more or less on hold during the Chapter 11 proceedings.
Foxconn now operates the factory it once owned in Lordstown, and even built a few dozen of the startup’s electric trucks before they were forced to recall them. Foxconn’s bid to become a contract manufacturer of American electric vehicles has largely failed to date. Two of its four prospective clients – Lordstown and IndiEV – have filed for bankruptcy, while Fisker (which is reportedly considering its own bankruptcy) recently pulled out of the group, saying it prefers to work with an established automaker. The only thing Foxconn made at its Ohio plant were tractors for California-based Monarch.
