Pence: Workhorse has 'secured' financing for GM's Lordstown plant

The proposed deal has been shrouded in doubts and derided as a PR stunt.

Vice President Mike Pence has announced that EV startup Workhorse has secured necessary funding for its proposed move into General Motors' idled Lordstown, Ohio, factory.

"Workhorse, I learned just this week, secured the financing to move forward to keep jobs in that community, and we're going to continue to look for ways to support that," he said at a groundbreaking event for a Magna facility in Lancaster, Ohio, as quoted by WKBN.

The initial announcement of Workhorse's plan to repurpose the Lordstown plant was quickly met with skepticism. The company has been in business for more than a decade but has reportedly only produced a few hundred vehicles. Its biggest potential production deals, including a contract to build the next-gen USPS postal trucks, are reportedly far from certain.

Pence's comment uses similar wording to Elon Musk's Twitter post that announced Tesla had 'secured' funding to go private. The deal fell apart and landed him in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Workhorse executive has admitted that the company will likely need at least $300 million in funding to retool the Lordstown facility.