EV startup Lordstown Motors (RIDE) announced a reverse stock split Tuesday as it attempts to remain listed on the NASDAQ exchange and secure funding to keep the Endurance electric pickup alive.
Lordstown’s journey so far
After going public in 2020 via a SPAC merger under the ticker “RIDE,” Lordstown watched its valuation soar with heightening interest in EV makers.
Shortly after, Lordstown felt the pressure with a disappointing prototype and its CEO and CFO abruptly resigning. With the company falling into disarray, the fate of the Endurance was up in the air.
To make matters worse, Lordstown was running low on cash and had warned it would need funding several times to continue operations. Although Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn stepped in, injecting several rounds of funds into the EV startup, Foxconn is now looking for a way out.
The news comes after Lordstown received a delisting notice from the NASDAQ in April stating the company has failed to maintain its minimum $1.00 stock price for 30 consecutive trading days.
Lordstown stock price chart 2020 to present (Source: TradingView)
As a result, Lordstown warned earlier this month that if it didn’t receive funding, “the company will be deprived of critical funding necessary for its operations,” adding it may need to “curtail or cease operations” or potentially face bankruptcy.
With Lordstown’s latest announcement of a reverse stock split, the EV startup is fighting to stay alive.
Lordstown announces 1:15 reverse stock split
According to Lordstown’s most recent press release, the 1:15 reverse stock split will go into effect when the market opens tomorrow, May 24.
For investors, this means for every fifteen shares of RIDE stock you hold, you will now have one. Your account will reflect the changes upon market open tomorrow. No fractional shares will be given. Instead, shareholders will receive cash equal to the fractional share amount.
Lordstown Endurance electric truck (Source: Lordstown)
The reverse stock split was approved by shareholders at its 2023 annual meeting and is “intended to improve the marketability and liquidity of Class A common stock.” In other words, it’s to remain listed on the exchange and attract investors.
Lordstown says if the stock price can remain above $1.00 for ten consecutive trading days, it “may satisfy Foxconn’s (incorrect) interpretation of the closing condition.” The company remains open but notes no agreement currently exists, and Lordstown cannot predict whether an agreement will be reached in the future.
Since starting production, Lordstown has built 56 Endurance vehicles, delivering 18 to customers. Given the dispute with Foxconn, Lordstown is taking “aggressive actions to reduce costs and preserve liquidity.” Foxconn had $165 million in cash and equivalents as of April 30, 2023, down $11 million from the end of Q1.
Lordstown’s stock is down over 10% in Tuesday’s trading session as investors take in the news.
Electrek’s Take
Lordstown is essentially throwing a hail mary at this point, hoping to resolve the dispute with Foxconn and remain listed on the NASDAQ exchange through a reverse stock split.
Although the stock split will boost the share price, there is no guarantee it will remain above the $1.00 price minimum. Investors are seemingly unhappy with the news, with Lordstown’s stock down 10% today to near-all-time lows of around $0.30.
With the fate of the Endurance once again up in the air, Lordstown is doing all it can to free up liquidity and stay in business.
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ChargePoint is rolling out a new program called “Safeguard Care” to ensure its EV chargers stay online. The service proactively sends trained technicians into the field to routinely check ChargePoint stations – before things go wrong.
These technicians inspect the chargers, clean them, repair what they can on-site, and run a test charge to ensure everything works before they leave. If they come across something they can’t fix, the issue gets escalated to ChargePoint’s support team for follow-up.
“As the original manufacturer of the chargers, we are able to ensure the highest standards of service and support,” said JD Singh, ChargePoint’s chief customer experience officer. “With Safeguard Care, ChargePoint is giving station owners and EV drivers peace of mind knowing that chargers will be in pristine working order.”
The service, which is starting in five launch markets across the US (ChargePoint hasn’t said which ones, and I’ll update if it answers me), is in addition to ChargePoint Assure, its existing hardware and software monitoring system. It benefits high-traffic charging sites like parking garages, office buildings, and public charging hubs, especially ones that don’t have a dedicated on-site maintenance crew.
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This move is part of ChargePoint’s broader effort to make public EV charging more reliable. In recent months, the company has introduced anti-vandalism upgrades and more proactive monitoring tools. But Safeguard Care marks an interesting shift toward proactive, rather than reactive, boots-on-the-ground support. Technicians usually aren’t dispatched until the EV charger software sends a notification to support that something’s gone wrong. I’ll be curious to see if this new in-person approach makes a difference with EV charger reliability.
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PayPalreported better-than-expected results for the second quarter and raised its full-year guidance for transaction margin dollars and earnings per share. The stock slipped more than 4% following the report.
Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:
Earnings per share: $1.40 adjusted vs. $1.30 expected
Revenue: $8.29 billion vs. $8.08 billion expected
Sales increased 5% from $7.89 billion a year earlier, as CEO Alex Chriss worked to roll off lower-margin revenue streams.
Transaction margin dollars, a key measure of profitability, rose 7% to $3.84 billion, marking the company’s sixth straight quarter of growth.
Growth in that metric slowed sequentially, down from 8% in the first quarter when excluding a one-time benefit that boosted results earlier this year. Branded checkout volumes also slowed to 5%, compared with 6% in the first quarter when adjusted for Leap Day.
Total payment volume, an indication of how digital payments are faring in the broader economy, beat estimates, coming in at $443.6 billion, compared with the $433.6 billion analysts had projected, according to StreetAccount. The number of active accounts rose 2% to 438 million, versus expectations of 437.8 million.
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PayPal shares are nearly 10% lower so far this year.
PayPal shares have fallen 8.4% for the year, as of Monday’s close, while the Nasdaq is up about 10% in 2025.
Venmo revenue grew more than 20% from a year earlier, following a 20% jump in the first quarter, though the company didn’t provide a dollar figure. Total payment volume for Venmo increased 12%, its highest growth rate in three years.
Chriss has focused on better monetizing key acquisitions such as Braintree and Venmo. DoorDash,Starbucksand Ticketmaster are among businesses now accepting Venmo as one way consumers can pay.
“We delivered another quarter of profitable growth, driven by continued strength across many of our strategic initiatives ranging from PayPal and Venmo branded experiences” to acting as payment service provider and other services, Chriss said in the statement.
For the third quarter, PayPal forecast adjusted earnings per share of $1.18 to $1.22, compared with the average analyst estimate of $1.20. Transaction margin dollars are expected to increase 4% to between $3.76 billion and $3.82 billion, the company said.
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Ahead of PayPal’s earnings, some analysts had struck a cautiously optimistic tone. Goldman Sachs noted that branded checkout growth was likely to improve sequentially to around 6%, up from 4% in the first quarter.
Morgan Stanley pointed to stronger e-commerce data and progress on PayPal’s checkout initiatives. Advanced integrations are now live at 45% of U.S. merchants, up from 30% in December, and are expected to help branded checkout volumes reaccelerate. The bank also flagged ongoing momentum in Braintree volumes.
PayPal now expects full-year adjusted earnings per share of $5.15 to $5.30, up from its prior forecast of $4.95 to $5.10. While third-quarter guidance is roughly inline with expectations, the updated outlook implies a stronger fourth quarter. The company also projects free cash flow of $6 billion to $7 billion for the year.
Electric bikes are booming in popularity in just about every demographic in the US. From teens riding to school all the way to elderly folks getting back on a bicycle for the first time in years, electric bikes are becoming ubiquitous. But as speeds and power levels have increased, Connecticut is responding with new laws.
Westport Police Lt. Serenity Dobson recently spoke to CTInsider about the phenomenon of more teens riding their e-bikes to school instead of being driven by their parents. “The whole entire bike rack is filled with these bikes that look like electric dirt bikes.”
Moped-style e-bikes have become increasingly popular with teens, with companies like Super73 ushering in a new wave of electric bikes with design cues borrowed from classic mopeds of decades past.
But Dobson says that these e-bikes are too easily modifiable, increasing speed and motor power past acceptable limits.
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“These bikes come stock at 30 mph, but you can cut the controller, and so then they can go 60, 70 mph, and the kids know how to do this,” Dobson said, adding that there has been a “huge increase in middle school-aged kids” riding e-bikes, particularly in the summer when school is out. “There are a lot of YouTube videos where it can show you how easy it is for someone to modify it.”
It’s not clear that such speeds are actually capable on stock parts from nearly any electric bicycle, and legal electric bikes are not capable of exceeding either 20 or 28 mph, depending on their classification, but Dobson may be referring to Sur Ron-style electric motorbikes, which are off-road electric motorcycles that look like small dirt bikes.
Connecticut already uses the common three-class system that codifies legal e-bikes as up to 20 mph (32 km/h) and 750W (one horsepower) for Class 1 and 2, or up to 28 mph (45 km/h) for Class 3 e-bikes.
But now the state is updating its e-bike laws, adding that any e-bike with over 750W of power will be considered a “motor-driven cycle” and require a driver’s license. Over 3,500W? That will be considered a motorcycle and require a motorcycle endorsement to legally ride, as well as registration and insurance like a motorcycle.
The new laws are expected to come into effect in October.
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