DETROIT (Reuters) – Electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors Corp is in talks to sell the northeast Ohio assembly plant it acquired from General Motors Co to Taiwan contract manufacturer Foxconn, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.
Lordstown and Foxconn are set to announce the deal as soon as this week, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.
Foxconn and Lordstown declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.
Lordstown, which named a new chief executive in August, is working to launch its electric Endurance pickup truck while also looking to raise additional funding. The Ohio company also faces regulatory scrutiny.
Lordstown had previously said it was in talks to build vehicles for other automakers or lease space in its factory. Lordstown uses only 30% of the plant’s 6.2 million square feet.
Foxconn, meanwhile, has been exploring possible sites to build EVs in the United States. Foxconn had previously said it was in talks with Wisconsin about building EVs there. Foxconn and Fisker Inc said in May they had finalized a deal for Foxconn to build EVs for the EV startup.
Lordstown’s founder and largest shareholder, Steve Burns, resigned as chief executive in June following an internal investigation into claims made by short-seller Hindenburg Research.
Lordstown faces probes by federal prosecutors in Manhattan and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) and statements it previously made about preorders for its vehicles.
Lordstown’s shares were up 6.9% in pre-market trading.
(Reporting by Ben Klayman in Detroit, additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei City; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)
