Lordstown (RIDE) sold 3 Endurance EV trucks in Q4, says new EV program in the works
Lordstown Motors (RIDE) Endurance EV pickup sales began in Q4, with the company selling not one, not two, but three vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2022. Although Lordstown beat the Tesla Cybertruck to market, the EV startup faces more financial woes with widening losses in Q4 and an ongoing production halt.
Meanwhile, Lordstown says it’s progressing on a new EV program with Foxconn.
Endurance EV truck sales begin in Q4
With the first three Endurance sales under its belt, Lordstown has crossed an important milestone, but the EV maker still has a long road ahead of it.
Founded in 2018, Lordstown has faced a series of hurdles to get to this point. After nearly running out of money several times, and the company’s CEO and CFO abruptly resigned in 2021, the fate of the Endurance electric pickup was up in the air.
Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn threw the company a life raft, buying its Ohio plant later that year. Foxconn has stepped in multiple times since to help the young EV maker since then.
After announcing it would need at least $50 to $75 million last August to ramp Endurance EV production and continue operations, Foxconn invested another $70 million to revamp the program.
Despite the cash injections, Lordstown is still facing issues getting its electric truck into customers’ hands. The company halted Endurance vehicle production last month amid a voluntary recall after finally beginning Endurance pickup sales in the fourth quarter.
On its Q4 earnings Monday, Lordstown said it’s still working to resolve the issue, with additional updates expected soon.
Lordstown Q4 2022 earnings highlights
Although Lordstown said the first batch of 500 Endurance EV trucks was leaving its Ohio plant in November, the company claims 40 of them have been completed or are in process, selling three EVs in Q4 and a total of six through February 2023.
Lordstown also said, “e now have line of sight to the resolution of the issues” and expect to announce in the “coming weeks” when it will resume production and EV deliveries.
Meanwhile, Foxconn continued throwing money at the EV startup, investing up to another $170 million with an initial $52 million funded.
Revenue reached $194,000 in Q4, while Lordstown’s net loss rose to $102 million. Lordstown ended the year with $221.7 million in cash and equivalents. The company expects to end the first quarter with $150 million to $170 million in funds, not including additional investments from Foxconn.
Of the $50 million Foxconn investment, $30 million is being put toward a new EV program, including an electric vehicle and platform.
Lordstown said, “the next platform and vehicle program are key” to the company’s long-term strategy and are becoming more of a focus.
Lordstown (RIDE) stock is down today as investors had hoped to hear better news on the production front.
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Solar panel giant Qcells announced today that it’s temporarily furloughing 1,000 US workers – 25% of its workforce – and reducing pay and shifts at its factories in northeast Georgia due to supply chain delays caused by US Customs.
Qcells furloughs 1,000 workers
The supply chain delays are hindering the company’s ability to import components to build its solar panels. This has resulted in Qcells’ two factories in Cartersville and Dalton being unable to operate at full capacity for several months.
Qcells spokeswoman Marta Stoepker shared the following statement in an exclusive with Channel 2 Action News in Atlanta:
The company says the furloughed workers, who were notified this afternoon, will retain full benefits and won’t be laid off. However, Qcells will no longer be using staffing agency employees in Georgia “at this time.”
As Qcells introduced new supply chains to support its growing solar panel manufacturing facilities in Georgia, the company was recently forced to scale back production while our shipments into the US were delayed in the customs clearance process.
Although our supply chain operations are beginning to normalize, today we shared with our employees that HR actions must be taken to improve operational efficiency until production capacity returns to normal levels.
Stoepker said it expects to bring the furloughed workers back “in the coming weeks and months.” She continued:
Our commitment to building the entire solar supply chain in the United States remains. We will soon be back on track with the full force of our Georgia team delivering American-made energy to communities around the country.
Electrek’s Take
In January 2023, the Seoul-headquartered Qcells announced it would invest more than $2.5 billion to build a solar supply chain in Georgia – the largest-ever investment in clean energy manufacturing in the US to date. That included expanding the Dalton solar factory and building a fully integrated solar supply chain factory in Cartersville, Georgia, that will manufacture solar ingots, wafers, cells, and finished panels.
It’s not quite there yet, because that takes time. In the meantime, it’s being penalized by Customs. The US government under Trump says it’s keen on boosting domestic manufacturing. Why would it work against a company that’s onshoring an entire solar supply chain, including recycling?
Dalton and Cartersville employ nearly 4,000 people. Its total output will reach 8.4 GW of solar production capacity per year, which is equivalent to nearly 46,000 panels per day – enough to power approximately 1.3 million homes annually.
It’s ludicrous that it has been forced to furlough a quarter of its workforce due to the ineptness of the Trump administration’s US Customs policies. This is right up there with the ICE arrests at Hyundai’s plant in Georgia. Bravo.
Read more: Georgia gives US solar panel manufacturing a big boost with a new factory
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The breakthrough EV batteries Toyota says will double driving range and cut charging times are facing another setback. The company is once again delaying plans for a new battery plant in Japan.
Why is Toyota delaying its EV battery plant this time?
Earlier this year, Toyota bought a 280,000-square-meter plot of land in Fukuoka, Japan, where it planned to build a plant to produce the more advanced EV batteries.
A location agreement was expected to be signed by April, but Toyota pushed back construction by several months, blaming slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles.
The agreement was expected to be finalized this Fall, but that will no longer be the case. According to Nikkei, Toyota is delaying the EV battery plant for the second time. Toyota will review and adjust plans over the next year.
Fukuoka governor, Seitaro Hattori, confirmed the news with reporters on Friday following a meeting with Toyota’s president, Koji Sato. Hattori also shut down claims that Toyota was planning to scrap the battery plant altogether.
Toyota again blamed slowing EV demand for the delay. The decision comes despite Keiji Kaita, president of Toyota’s Carbon Neutral Advanced Engineering Development Center, confirming at the Japan Mobility Show just last week that it’s “sticking on the schedule” to introduce its first solid-state battery-powered EV by 2028.
Last month, Toyota said it aimed to “achieve the world’s first practical use of all-solid-state batteries in BEVs” after securing a partnership with Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. to mass-produce them. It’s also working with Japanese oil giant Idemitsu.
The company recently revealed a solid-state battery pack prototype that it claims can deliver 747 miles (1,200 km) range and 10-minute fast charging, but will we ever see it actually in production?
Electrek’s Take
Toyota has been making empty promises about EV batteries for almost a decade now. It initially planned to introduce solid-state EV batteries in 2020, then pushed it to 2023, then 2026, and now it’s saying it will be around 2028.
Mass production is likely closer to the end of the decade, if Toyota doesn’t delay it again. While it’s blaming the slowing demand, global EV sales are still on the rise. According to Rho Motion, global EV sales topped 2 million for the first time in a single month in September 2025. Through the first nine months of the year, EV sales are up 26% compared to the same period in 2024.
Even with the US ending the $7,500 federal tax credit and other policies designed to promote electric vehicles, global adoption will continue building momentum over the next few years.
Is it a demand issue, or is Toyota just looking for another excuse? With rivals like Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, BMW, and Honda advancing next-gen EV batteries, Toyota will only fall further behind if it continues delaying key projects.
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