Lordstown Motors was sort of the homegrown hero of recent EV startups: an impressive electric truck designed and built in America. However, everything is not as it seems with Lordstown, if a recent report is accurate.
Many if not most of these orders aren’t actually orders. Hindenburg Research calls them “mirages.” The research indicates that the pre-orders weren’t actually pre-orders. They are nonbinding letters of intent to purchase, essentially a piece of paper saying customers intend to purchase but aren’t contractually obligated to do so.
One of the big pre-orders was from a company called E Squared Energy Advisors. As recently as Christmas Eve 2020, Lordstown was bragging about the company placing a pre-order of 14,000 vehicles. That would be unlikely, though, as Hindenburg discovered that E Squared isn’t a registered corporation. It’s a company with two employees and an address that’s the apartment of the company’s CEO in Frisco, Texas.
Read the article at Jalopnik.