Late taxes another troubling sign for electric truck startup

CLEVELAND (AP) — The failure of an Ohio-based electric truck startup to pay $570,000 in real estate taxes due in early March is yet another troubling sign for a company that has been barraged by bad news this year.

Lordstown Motors Corp. stock has plummeted from nearly $31 a share on Feb. 11 to just over $10 on Tuesday in the wake of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry and the filing of four potential class-action lawsuits by investors who claim they have been defrauded.

The company appeared to be primed for success last June during a showcase event at the massive former GM plant outside Youngstown, Ohio. Then-Vice President Mike Pence sat in the passenger seat of an Endurance prototype as it rolled onto a stage to hearty applause. Noisy, colorfully lit robots building nothing gyrated nearby.

The first drip of bad news came in January when an Endurance pickup truck prototype caught fire 10 minutes into its initial test drive in Michigan. A company spokesperson issued a statement afterward saying, "No one was hurt, and like all of our test findings, we do it to create a great product.”

The company did not respond Tuesday to an emailed request for comment about the unpaid taxes, initially reported by the Tribune Chronicle in Warren. Lordstown Motors also owes a 10% late-payment penalty of around $57,000.

Company officials announced in January it had received more than 100,000 pre-orders for the Endurance and production was scheduled to begin this September, which critics claim is untrue.

Lordstown Motors CEO Steve Burns acknowledged during an earnings call in March that the SEC was conducting an inquiry based on a lengthy and hyper-critical report by the investment firm Hindenburg Research, which holds a short position on Lordstown Motors stock.

The...