LORDSTOWN, Ohio - A big leadership shake up at Lordstown Motors, as the electric vehicle start up company announced its CEO and CFO resigned.

The company's board of directors named an interim CEO to take over for Steve Burns until a permanent replacement can be found.

Last week the company revealed it had serious doubts it could hit its anticipated commercial production launch date in September.

"It's going from bad to worse," Autoline's John McElroy said. "They say they resigned, sounds to me they got fired by their board."

Burns leaves just one year after unveiling the all-electric Endurance inside the plant that produced GM vehicles and jobs for generations.

According to a news release from the company, Lead Independent Director Angela Strand has been appointed Executive Chairwoman of the Company and will oversee the organization's transition until a permanent CEO is identified, and Becky Roof will serve as Interim Chief Financial Officer.

Auto industry experts question whether Lordstown Motors can line up the cash it needs to survive.

"The question is not just getting money, but getting enough money and they need a lot," McElroy said. "I think that's going to be extremely difficult to be able to find."

CNBC Auto Industry Analyst Phil LeBeau says the exit of the company's two top leaders 'raises red flags' about the viability of the Lordstown start up.

He also points to findings in the company board's special committee investigation also released today, which cites Endurance pre-order numbers were inaccurate in some cases under Burns' watch.

"For strategic investors, they are going to want to know a very sober accounting of how many true pre-orders there were, verses how many expressions of interest," LeBeau said.

The number of pre-orders Lordstown Motors touted was the target of short seller Hindenburg Research this year.

While the committee's finding agree that those numbers didn't all add up, it also said some of Hindenburg's allegations were false and misleading, stating in its summary:

"In particular, its challenges to the viability of Lordstown Motors’ technology and timeline to start of production are not accurate."

LOCAL LEADERS REACT

Lordstown Motors Corp. has not received any tax incentives or funding support from the county or village to date.

Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda tells 21 News he's hopeful that the company can eventually bring the jobs its promised to produce along with its EV truck.

"Jobs relate to people working and spending money in the county," Fuda said.

Fuda says he would be interested in meeting with the incoming CEO and Lordstown Motors leadership to find out whether the county could provide any support.

Lordstown Mayor Arno Hill said the news of Burns' resignation was a shock.

The village is not financially depending on the plant to produce this year, but Hill does want to see something succeed inside the former GM Lordstown plant.

The new Ultium Cells battery plant, TJX Homegoods Distribution Center are among several new businesses that have come to Lordstown.

"Lordstown Motors was kind of the icing on the cake, we didn't figure it into our budget, we figured once they did get ramped up and everything, it would help off set some of the money we lost from GM," Hill said.

Despite the changes, a company spokesperson says they are still planning to go ahead with its Lordstown Week starting June 21.

The week includes a "Live from Lordstown" virtual tour of the plant for investors, analysts and customers on June 25.