Lordstown Motors’ stock price tumbled Thursday after the electric-vehicle startup told investors it’s facing scrutiny from the feds.
Shares in the General Motors-backed company slid about 8.2 percent to $13.85 in premarket trading as of 8:58 a.m. after CEO Steve Burns said it received “requests for information” from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Wednesday revelation came less than a week after the hard-charging short-seller Hindenburg Research accused Lordstown of inflating its pre-order numbers with “largely fictitious” reservations for the Endurance pickup truck it’s developing.
Burns said Lordstown is cooperating with the SEC’s inquiry but did not elaborate on what information the regulator is seeking or when its requests arrived.
“In addition, the board of directors has formed a special committee to review these matters,” Burns said on Lordstown’s first earnings call as a publicly traded company. “That is all we can say” until the review is complete, he added.
The SEC declined to comment Thursday.
Hindenburg Research targeted Lordstown after its damning report on Nikola — another buzzy electric-truck maker — tanked the company’s stock and threw a wrench into its partnership with GM, which has invested $75 million in Lordstown.
In addition to the pre-order allegations, Hindenburg said Lordstown is three to four years away from manufacturing its Endurance model despite its claims that production is on track to start in September.
The pickup burst into flames just 10 minutes into its first road test in January, Hindenburg said, citing a police report and a 911 call from the incident.
But Lordstown has stood by its timeline for starting production on the Endurance. The company also issued a statement Monday saying it intends to respond to Hindenburg’s claims “as appropriate in due time.”
“We expect to make an Endurance every six minutes when we start production this year, and work our way up to an Endurance every four minutes next year,” Burns said Wednesday.