Lordstown Motors Inflated Truck Preorders, Shareholders Allege

Lordstown Motors Corp. was hit with a proposed securities class action Thursday in the Northern District of Ohio alleging the electric car manufacturer inflated the number of preorders for its Endurance electric pickup truck.

Lordstown said in an Oct. 8, 2020, proxy statement that it already received 38,000 preorders for the truck, in an effort to solicit shareholders’ approval for a merger with DiamondPeak Holdings Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, the complaint alleges.

After stockholders approved the business combination on Oct. 22, the company’s estimates continued to grow and, in January 2021, it announced that preorders for the Endurance ...