Lordstown Motors was founded in 2018 by Steve Burns, the former CEO of a small commercial vehicle maker named Workhorse Group (WKHS), who saw an opportunity when General Motors needed to sell its Lordstown, Ohio, manufacturing plant.
The automaker began negotiating with Burns under pressure from President Trump, who promoted the deal before Burns had even secured financing or named the new company. The resulting company, Lordstown Motors, aimed to sell a truck armed with electric motors on each wheel hub but never seemed to run out of problems.
In 2021, short-seller Hindenburg Research accused Burns and Lordstown of exaggerating how many orders it had received for the truck, which itself ran…
