When General Motors determined to drag the plug on a sedan plant in northeast Ohio nearly two years in the past, the Detroit-based automaker was reacting to America’s rising curiosity in vans and SUVs.

The transfer eradicated greater than 1,300 jobs, making a headache for Lordstown, Ohio, and the native financial system that trusted the manufacturing facility, drawing the ire of President Donald Trump.

Lordstown Motors, an electrical car start-up that now owns the meeting plant in its namesake metropolis, is giving the manufacturing website new that means and hopes to make use of extra on the plant than its predecessor by the tip of 2021. The corporate is manufacturing Endurance, an all-electric pickup.

“We’re in a race to carry this again to life and, you understand, come out with the primary electrical pickup truck in the USA,” Steve Burns, the chief government of Lordstown Motors, advised CNBC’s Jim Cramer in a “Mad Money” interview.

Lordstown Motors, which purchased the positioning from GM and commenced buying and selling on the Nasdaq in late October by way of a particular goal acquisition, expects to double its workers on the plant to 500 by the tip of subsequent month and rent one other 1,500 staff there in 2021.

The corporate is making an attempt to revive goal in the local people after GM ended production of the slow-selling Cruze sedan, the one car being assembled on the manufacturing facility, which operated there for 5 many years.

“It had been right here for 53 years and shut down type of abruptly, so a whole lot of ache within the space,” Burns stated.

Shares of the electrical car firm jumped almost 10% on Tuesday, which got here at some point after the inventory rose 26% on news that it was receiving large inquiries from commercial fleets for the Endurance truck. The car is slated to launch within the second half of 2021.

Lordstown Motors’ market worth reached $4.1 billion at Tuesday’s shut with shares at $24.70.

Whereas the corporate stated it has acquired about 50,000 manufacturing reservations, that are nonbinding, the typical fleet order is for 500 autos. Among the companies exhibiting curiosity embody Duke Power and FirstEnergy.

Within the interview, Burns highlighted the position that GM has performed in getting the plant up and working, going past simply promoting the placement to Lordstown Motors. The standard automaker in May 2019 committed $700 million to again the operation and set up lots of of jobs there, together with in-kind contributions to get the enterprise going.

“The connection began as only a fast asset promote — they had been simply going to promote us a manufacturing facility — and it slowly migrated into one thing a lot richer,” Burns stated.

“They’re one of many pipe traders, together with, you understand, long-term establishments like Fidelity [and] BlackRock, however they in fact carry greater than cash,” he stated of GM. “They carry an amazing relationship.”