Bottom Drops Out of the Red-Hot Market for Electric Vehicle Start-Ups

Lordstown Motors said it would start producing and selling electric pickup trucks this year, but there is little evidence it is ready to do so. Its stock has tumbled from a high of about $30 last year to around $8.

Lordstown Motors is one of a dozen electric vehicle start-ups that have wowed investors with big plans to revolutionize the auto industry. It won acclaim for taking over a plant whose shutdown by General Motors drew the wrath of President Donald J. Trump. But Lordstown seems far from achieving its goal of churning out electric pickup trucks starting in September and becoming a challenger to G.M. and Ford Motor. In February, a prototype it was testing in Michigan caught fire and burned so long and so hot that there was nothing left of the rubber tires. Then, in April, another prototype dropped out of a 280-mile off-road race in Baja California after just 40 miles, performing worse than a 1980s vintage Toyota converted to run on a Nissan Leaf motor and battery. The company hasn’t begun hiring the union workers it promised would assemble its trucks even as it recently listed openings for an executive chef and a fitness coach.