Lordstown Motors may be well on its way to producing an electric pickup truck as the automaker is reportedly in the process of securing a $200 million loan from the U.S. Energy Department to retool a former GM plant.

Steve Burns, Lordstown Motors’ chief executive told Reuters, he met with the department and was planning on meeting with the agency’s loan program office the next day.

“We think we are worthy of government help. We don’t want a handout - we want a loan,” Burns told the news outlet. “It’s just going to be more jobs faster if we get it. We are viable without it.”

Lordstown Motors is reportedly looking to debut its electric truck model at the Detroit auto show in June, with production slated to begin by the end of 2020 and plans to hire about 400 workers at the Lordstown, Ohio, assembly plant.

The company is hopeful that it will procure funds from the department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, which has awarded loans to other automakers like Ford, Tesla, and Nissan to help retool their factories. But the agency has not issued a loan since 2011, Reuters said.

GM closed the Lordstown plant in November 2018, which was picked up by Lordstown Motors for $20 million. Lordstown Motors has secured a loan from GM for $40 million to acquire and retool the plant, which Burns told the news outlet the company hopes to repay “in a few weeks.”

Lordstown Motors
Lordstown Motors purchased the Ohio GM plant in November 2019. The GM Lordstown plant is shown on March 6, 2019 in Lordstown, Ohio. The sprawling facility was idled today after more than 50 years producing cars and other vehicles, falling victim to changing U.S. auto preferences, according to the company. Getty Images/Jeff Swensen
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