(Reuters) -Lordstown Motors Corp on Monday posted a bigger loss for the fourth quarter, as the electric-vehicle (EV) maker struggled with production costs and missed its delivery target for the Endurance pickup truck.
EV companies that went public in past few years have been battling surging costs and challenges in securing supply of parts to make enough vehicles to meet the sector’s burgeoning demand.
At the start of commercial production in September, the company had set a target to deliver 50 vehicles in 2022 and more in 2023 out of the planned first batch of 500 units.
However, Lordstown suspended production last month due to performance and quality issues with some components and reported sales of only six vehicles. The company’s supply chain constraints, especially in motor components, are also expected to weigh on production in the current quarter.
Net loss for the quarter ended Dec. 31 stood at $102.3 million, compared with $81.2 million a year earlier. The results included an impairment charge of $36.5 million that the firm said was driven mainly by a decrease in its stock price.
The company had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of $221.7 million as of Dec. 31, up from $203.5 million in the preceding quarter. It expects to have between $150 million and $170 million in cash and short-term investments at the end of the first quarter.
Lordstown’s fourth-quarter revenue was $194,000, widely missing estimates of $1.29 million, according to Refinitiv, while adjusted loss of 45 cents per share was also bigger than estimates of 28 cents.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh Venkateshwaran)
