FILE – In this June 22, 2021, file photo, a mural is displayed on the wall outside the Lordstown Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio. Lordstown Motors, an Ohio company that has come under scrutiny over the number of orders it claimed it had for the electric trucks that it wants to produce, acknowledged that it has received two subpoenas from federal regulators and that prosecutors in New York have opened an investigation. The Securities and Exchange Commission asked in a pair of subpoenas for documents related to the company’s merger with DiamondPeak, a special purpose acquisition company. (AP Photo/David Dermer, File)
MOUNT PLEASANT — Foxconn reportedly is in the process of purchasing an already-built electric vehicle factory in Ohio.
Lordstown Motors Corp. is “near an agreement to sell its … Ohio factory to Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group,” Bloomberg reported Thursday.
The factory — located in the Village of Lordstown, about halfway between Cleveland and Pittsburgh — was originally a General Motors Co. factory that was sold to Lordstown in 2019 after GM closed it the year prior.
Lordstown is an American electric truck company that is reportedly low on cash and is facing legal scrutiny for allegedly lying about the number of preorders it had; its founder resigned in June amid the investigation.
Foxconn has been quickly moving into the business of producing electric vehicles and has partnered with California-based Fisker Inc., with Foxconn promising to make some of Fisker’s first EV vehicles.
There were tentative plans for Foxconn to use its Mount Pleasant property to build the vehicles, and Foxconn and Fisker said they were talking with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to again renegotiate Foxconn’s contract with the State of Wisconsin regarding the plan.