Fortunes Vanish for Would-Be Buyer of GM Plant

Workhorse Group—the tiny electric-vehicle maker that hopes to buy a shuttered General Motors assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio—reported sales revenue of just $6,000 in the second quarter, Bloomberg News reports.

Workhorse, which employs about 200 people, hasn’t turned a profit in at least 10 years. Last year the company lost $37 million on sales of $763,000, and its cash reserve shrank nearly two-thirds to $1.5 million. The company has a market value of roughly $200 million, Bloomberg says.

Workhorse founder Steve Burns is trying to raise $300 million to set up a new entity, Lordstown Motors Corp., that would acquire the factory and make an all-electric vehicle based on Workhorse’s W-15 truck.

The new company also would back Workhorse’s bid to win a $6 billion-plus contract to supply delivery trucks for the U.S. Postal Service. CEO Duane Hughes tells analysts that gaining control of the 6.2 million-sq-ft GM plant could help Workhorse secure the deal.

Hughes says the company has a $70 million backlog of orders for its EVs, which would be produced primarily at a Workhorse facility in Union City, Indiana.