Lordstown Motors Announces IPO

When the last Chevy Cruze rolled off the line at the General Motors Lordstown assembly plant in March 2019, Bill Janik was there.

"If you saw the sign that said 'the last Cruze,' I made it and I hung it on the car," he said.

Janik worked at the plant for 17 years before it shut down. His wife had been there for 25 years.

Over the course of a few years, GM Lordstown went from employing 4,500 people to essentially none.

The company that purchased the former General Motors plant in Lordstown has announced a merger.  

When the General Motors plant in Lordstown, Ohio, went dark last year, it was a familiar story for the region. Yet another manufacturing powerhouse — a pillar of the local economy and a rare source of good jobs — was shutting down.

But the closure of the plant was not the end of the story. The factory was sold to Lordstown Motors, a startup building an electric pickup truck that's scheduled to be unveiled on Thursday.

Nikola founder Trevor Milton has stepped away from his startup, which is working on making tractor trailers powered by hydrogen fuel cells, after he was accused of fraudulently exaggerating the viability of some of his company's technology.

Milton, who denies the allegations, says he resigned his position as executive chairman of Nikola's Board of Directors because "the focus should be on the Company ... not me." He said he intends to defend himself against "false accusations."

As the federal government takes a back seat in promoting electric vehicles some states, such as New Jersey, are taking the wheel.

There are nearly 1.5 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads today, according to the Edison Electric Institute. EV boosters concerned about climate change want even more and they say governments should help speed the transition away from internal combustion cars.

President Trump once promised that coal and steel would be the heart of a revived U.S. economy.