Northeastern Ohio: Maybe Abandon All Hope
Stock price isn't everything. But it's a major tell. Today EV startup Lordstown Motors' price nosedived 6.44% to 1.67. That's way down from its 52-week high of 15.80. And the drivers don't have much to do with what is killing the stock prices of more established players.
Axios reports the pessimism surrounding EV startups in general. They are facing the same constraints as the big boys like Ford. Those include:
Frozen supply chains
Materials inflation
Fierce competition
Volatility about stock prices.
But, they lack the resources to absorb the blows and even if they did, where do they wind up? In contrast to Ford, they don't have that kind of production capacity. They also don't have the brandname. Axios gives good marks to the Ford EV F - 150 Lightning Speed.
Overall, Lordstown Motors has been plagued with trouble. Some of it involves government scrutiny. That all represents the possibility of no economic resurrection in Northeastern Ohio. Things there weren't too swift when GM shut down its one-time three-shift Cruze production facility. In the era of the SUV, the subcompact wasn't selling. The area, unlike Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania had not diversified after the steel industry collapsed. Pittsburgh built niches in healthcare, education, and technology.
So much hope had been placed on Lordstown Motors. It was high-tech. It was green. It was, unlike the low-demand Cruze, producing a pickup truck.
Now, here we are. Northeastern Ohio needs a miracle and that probably won't come in the form of Lordstown Motors.
Connect with Editor-in-Chief Jane Genova at janegenova374@gmail.com.
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