Rivian seeks IPO that would Make it More Valuable than Ford or GM

[davewindsor]

Lordstown wants to build large trucks. The last vehicle made in the Lordstown assembly plant was the Chevy Cruze, which means the plant is set up for compact car production. Retooling a line for a different size vehicle costs a lot of money, but it's doable.

What costs a *ton* of money is the paint shop. A truck body and carrier won't physically fit into a paint shop built for a compact car. It's not a matter of retooling, you have to tear the paint shop down and build a new one. This is a *significant* expense, to the point it might be more cost effective to just build a new building.

I don't think you know what you are talking about with Lordstown. Everything is still on track to start production in late September. They already built 52 trucks from the production line for national safety testing.

Let's assume what you said had any merit, which is doesn't. Ok, so why didn't Lordstown just move their paint shop to another area of their plant? The plant is 6.5m sq. ft and they are only using 30% of the plant. There is even talk of Lordstown renting out the other 70% for extra income. https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/11/2...-manufacturing

BTW, Lordstown has online tours of their plant on their website and those ceilings are really high from the videos. You say a truck can't fit in there? Prove it. Just because it produced the Chevy Cruze doesn't prove anything.

But that's besides the point because everything is already set up for production. They still have $366m in cash on hand along with another $400m guaranteed by a hedge fund in can they don't get the ATVM Energy Dept loan that Tesla, Ford, Fisker and Nissan got [[totaling over $8.4B). The new CEO was brought over from the Icahn Group who has a track record of being a turnaround agent in other automotive companies.

You don't know what you are talking about.

[JBMcB]

I don't think you know what you are talking about with Lordstown.

My wife worked on the last retooling there before they closed it down. She's been doing new factory spinups and retools for 20 years, including metal centers, general assembly and paint shops. She currently runs a team of engineers working on a dozen factories. Pretty sure she knows what she is talking about.