LORDSTOWN – Lordstown Motors early today announced a strategic restructuring, bankruptcy and breach of contract legal action. It’s also going to be for sale.

The company filed Chapter 11 to implement restructuring. But it stated in a news release that the Company is debt-free and continues to operate with significant cash on hand.

It filed a complaint against Foxconn that alleges fraud and bad faith, leading to value destruction.

The EV truck maker also started a comprehensive sale process for its Endurance truck and related EV assets.

The electric light-duty vehicle comany is focused on the commercial fleet market.

It has sued global technology company Hon Hai Technology Group and affiliates, including Foxconn Ventures Pte. Ltd. in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

The litigation details Foxconnás fraud and willful and consistent failure to live up to its commercial and financial commitments to the Company. Foxconnás actions led to material damage to the Company as well as its future prospects.

Foxconn has not yet responded to the court filing.

In addition, and as a consequence of Foxconn’s material and irreparable harm, Lordstown Motors said, it is commencing a comprehensive marketing and sale process for the Endurance vehicle and related assets. To accomplish this expeditiously and provide a prospective buyer with a going concern asset that is free and clear of any legacy issues, Lordstown is restructuring under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court. Lordstown further anticipates that the restructuring will enable an expedited timeline for hearing Lordstownás litigation against Foxconn.

Edward Hightower, CEO & President of Lordstown, said, “As one of the early entrants to the EV industry, we have delivered the Endurance, an innovative and highly-capable EV with significant commercial and retail potential ­ and had subsequently engaged with Foxconn in a purposeful, strategic partnership to leverage this expertise into a broader EV development platform. Despite our best efforts and earnest commitment to the partnership, Foxconn willfully and repeatedly failed to execute on the agreed-upon strategy, leaving us with Chapter 11 as the only viable option to maximize the value of Lordstown’s assets for the benefit of our stakeholders. We will vigorously pursue our litigation claims against Foxconn accordingly.”

The complaint filed against Foxconn centers on a transformative, strategic partnership Lordstown’s management team entered into with Foxconn to combine Lordstown’s innovation, technology, accomplished vehicle engineering team and manufacturing facility in Lordstown with Foxconn’s resources, supply chain capabilities and position as one of the world’s largest electronics manufacturers with stated significant automotive capabilities to form a new, scalable joint vehicle development platform.

Under the partnership, according to the complaint, Lordstown agreed to divest its most valuable assets to Foxconn, namely its Lordstown manufacturing facility. The up-front purchase price for the Lordstown manufacturing facility reflected the expected benefits of the contractual assurances from Foxconn that Foxconn would support the Endurance pickup truck in a variety of ways and follow through on a joint vehicle development program, leveraging what was purported to be Foxconn’s established and extensive EV ecosystem and meeting its commitments to the Lordstown community.

The lawsuit details that Foxconn had no intention of living up to its commitments, particularly with respect to the new vehicle development platform. As the lawsuit describes, Foxconn simply used its variety of contractual arrangements with the Company as a tool to maliciously and in bad faith destroy Lordstown’s business while leveraging resources gained through the partnership to advance its own business interests.

In addition, Lordstown Motors seeks to maximize the value of its assets and efficiently resolve its contingent liabilities through a Chapter 11 restructuring process. Lordstown has filed motions with the court seeking authority to commence a comprehensive marketing and sale process under section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to realize the full value of its innovative.

The company said it’s confident that a buyer could utilize the Endurance platform to create multiple EV variants and take the product to the next level.

“We remain confident that an orderly, expedited sale process will maximize value for our stakeholders and enable the talent and technology behind the Endurance to find new and supportive ownership. While in Chapter 11, Lordstown will continue to support our customers,” Hightower said in the news release.

“We are grateful for the Lordstown team for their commitment and dedication to our vision and to our customers, suppliers and business partners for believing in the Endurance and in the EV evolution.”