Lordstown Motors, which not too long ago declared chapter, is an organization that was constructed on numerous guarantees, the first one being that it might make the Endurance, an EV pickup, and it might promote a variety of Endurances, and that will make Lordstown’s traders some huge cash, together with the shareholders who purchased into Lordstown after it went public in 2020.

In the midst of attempting to do all of that, Lordstown entered into an settlement with Foxconn, finest generally known as the producers of Apple’s iPhone, to assist make the automobiles, which, not too long ago, additionally turned the main target of a lawsuit. Lordstown had beforehand promised to provide hundreds of Endurance pickups by now on the Ohio plant that GM used to run, however, so far, solely 65 have been produced.

This has all been extra of a sideshow than any urgent concern for anybody except for Lordstown traders and their workers, who’ve in all probability been searching for different investments and jobs for years now, in the event that they haven’t jumped ship already.

Nonetheless, final yr, Lordstown may nearly plausibly argue that they nonetheless had a shot at making and promoting all these vehicles, or no less than have been going by the motions of attempting. On this vein, Bloomberg reported Wednesday about an episode final yr about Lordstown’s CEO attempting, on this case going to Taiwan and hanging out for days and never getting a key assembly he flew there to get.

From Bloomberg:

Lordstown Motors Corp. government Ed Hightower flew to Taiwan from Detroit final yr for conferences with leaders of Foxtron, an organization affiliated with iPhone assembler Foxconn Expertise Group, for talks he thought would kick off improvement of a brand new electrical car. The CEO ghosted him.

Hightower spent three days in isolation resulting from Covid-19 protocols earlier than he may meet with the Taiwanese executives. He acquired face time with Younger Liu, Foxconn’s chairman, and a few of his lieutenants. However the essential work was to be carried out with Foxtron, which Foxconn majority owns. The thought was to accomplice on a mid-size crossover SUV that will be constructed within the Lordstown, Ohio, plant previously occupied by Basic Motors Co.

The Foxtron boss refused to fulfill, Hightower mentioned in an interview. Hightower couldn’t get engineering drawings, knowledge and important licensing agreements wanted to get the mission going. Liu was chair of each corporations, however mentioned he couldn’t compel Foxtron to fulfill with Hightower. After nearly two weeks, the American government mentioned he gave up and flew residence.

“I made the journey to Taiwan to interrupt the logjam,” mentioned Hightower, who was Lordstown’s president on the time of the journey and is now its chief government officer. “Numerous instances it’s about relationships,” Hightower mentioned, however on this case, “I used to be not in a position to meet my goal.”

Now, in our fashionable society, it’s nonetheless attainable to overlook a name, to have a miscommunication a few time and a spot, to overlook a enterprise assembly since you forgot otherwise you have been taking a dump or one particular person simply didn’t really feel prefer it and begged off, as a result of life is brief and typically you’d somewhat take a protracted lunch or, god forbid, do one thing enjoyable, as an alternative. However, like within the outdated days, such excuses solely go to this point, and, when there’s a man who has traveled midway the world over to see you and has been ready for nearly two weeks, the message is obvious: You bought his messages about assembly up and have determined to not.

For the jilted Lordstown CEO, I hope he no less than ate some good meals in his time abroad. By the point this type of factor occurs, you in all probability already knew the connection was over anyway.