Lordstown Motors Corp.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Lordstown Motors second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participant lines are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star then 1 on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference may be recorded. If you require any further assistance, please press star then 0. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Carter Driscoll, head of capital markets and investor relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, operator. Good afternoon and thank you to all for joining Lordstown Voters, the second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. To supplement today's discussion, please go to our IR website to view our press release and investor deck. Before we begin, I want to call your attention to our safe harbor provision for forward-looking statements that is posted on our website and is part of our quarterly update. The safe harbor provision identifies risk factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from the content of our forward-looking statements for the reasons that we cite in our Form 10Q and other SEC filings, including uncertainties posed by the difficulty in predicting future outcomes. Joining us today will be Lordstown Motors Executive Chairwoman Angela Strand, President Rich Smith, and Interim CFO Becky Ruth. Angela will provide a strategic update on the business, followed by Rich will give a more detailed update on production, and then Becky will cover the financial results, followed by Angela will provide our outlook and closing remarks. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Angela Strand.

Thank you, Carter, and to everyone for joining us today. Our strengthened leadership team has been in place now for less than two months, and has thoughtfully broadened our go-forward commercial strategy. We have identified five critical strategic priorities for Lordstown Motors that put us on our path to profitability. Today our goal is to tell you as much as we can about these strategic priorities, as we believe they will unlock the value of both our physical facilities and our technology. We will also provide you with the latest available information on the commercialization of the endurance, on our continuing efforts to raise additional capital, and on the other initiatives that our leadership team is undertaking. I want to start by highlighting how our key assets are moving us forward. Our deep and experienced team, our tremendously large and highly flexible plan, and the breadth of technologies we've developed. First, We have become more convinced than ever about our innovation and the inherent value of our technology. Lordstown's tremendous engineering team, with its close partner, Lafay, has expanded our unique hub motor design. Many of you on this call today are familiar with in-wheel hub motors, but since more and more people are now only hearing about us, I want to take a moment to explain. Our in-wheel drive puts a motor completely inside each wheel, and is controlled through integrated software to make them all work together safely, powerfully, and efficiently. Rather than replicating a gas engine powertrain with inefficient transfer cases, axles, and differentials, we have a motor in each wheel and a centralized mind that controls them, providing unrivaled all-wheel drive control with exceptional performance, torque, tow, turning, and TCO. So we at Lordstown take a clean sheet approach to where the power should really come from in an electric vehicle since we have no legacy mindset or assets tying us to the past. We believe that form should follow function and are relentless about meeting customer needs. We feel it's the way you'd build a work truck if you're starting from new. We are now redoubling our efforts to explain our hub motor technology to the market and to potential investors. We believe that the more our hub motors are proven out through continued testing, the more investors and customers will appreciate Lordstown's unique technological value proposition. Second, we are accelerating actions to unlock the full potential of our factory and our campus. Lordstown controls a 6.2 million square foot manufacturing plant on 650 acres of land in a great location in Ohio's Voltage Valley, with access to suppliers, rail, and a highly trained workforce. The plant itself was kept warm by its prior owner, and this year we have upgraded the factory such that it is completely vertically integrated with our commissioned battery and soon to be commissioned hub motor lines. As a result, we are now well positioned to produce our endurance truck. But even more than that, we have seen the multiple opportunities that our manufacturing facilities and our large surrounding campus present to other companies that are seeking ready-to-go manufacturing capabilities for their products. This is a significant market. Serious discussions are now underway with several potential partners, and we expect that many more will become attracted to the potential of our factory as word of our decision to unlock its full potential spreads through the marketplace. This is a critical strategic pivot for us, a decision that we believe will lead to significant new revenue opportunities for Lordstown at the same time as production of the endurance is ramping up in the endurance portion of the factory. Simply put, because of our factory and our campus, Lordstown is uniquely positioned to accelerate production both for our partners and for the endurance. Third, We have gained an even deeper understanding of the broader potential marketplace and are more convinced than ever about our ability to penetrate important opportunities in this space. We believe that Lordstown's endurance can address both the commercial and direct-to-consumer segments in the electric pickup truck marketplace. Initially, the commercial fleet segment is one where we have every reason to believe Lordstown's endurance can succeed in a big way. The opportunity is substantial, and it is just a subset of the overall $90 billion potential market for electric light duty pickup trucks. And while there are already competitors, including big brands, the EV pickup market is so underserved that there is plenty of room for all. With our particular focus initially on the commercial fleet market, as well as strategically targeting delivery trucks, military vehicle programs, and technology licensing of our batteries, hub motors, and skateboard platform, we believe Lordstown has a wide and clear road forward into a lucrative and expanding EV marketplace. Fourth, our strengthened leadership team is determined to build the endurance the right way. As everyone knows, the last months have been difficult for vehicle manufacturers generally. Shortages of semiconductors and vehicle parts of all kinds have created enormous production challenges for even the most established traditional OEMs. And we at Lordstown are not immune from these acute supply problems. Our team is adapting and will continue to adapt to these short-term challenges and to making the best decisions for our stakeholders. First and foremost is production readiness. We will be prudently ramping production to ensure a quality product and to accommodate supplier realities in the near term. We are on track to begin limited production at the end of September and complete vehicle validation and regulatory approvals in December to January. This will be followed by deployments with selected early customers in Q1, in advance of commercial deliveries in early Q2, with the ramps being the second half of next year. This responsible commercial plan is important for three reasons. One, to ensure that we provide our fleet customers with the time necessary to experience and then build out the required charging infrastructure for larger deployments. Two, to manage our supply chain challenges prudently, particularly as shortages and COVID impacts persist through the next few quarters. And three, to further fortify our capital position to fully support our commercial launch. Finally, our fifth strategic priority. Our experienced leadership team has embarked upon a comprehensive effort to raise the new capital that will be necessary to ensure Lordstown's ultimate success. We have already announced an equity purchase agreement for up to 400 million. The agreement was the first of what we believe will be several steps to ensure that the company has the financing it needs to succeed to profitability. We are now exploring a variety of other financing options, including non-dilutive private strategic investments and debt. We look forward to updating all of you as we reach agreements regarding these new financing options. I will now turn the call over to Rich.