Born in the wave of start-up creations around electric vehicles before 2020, Canoo has ceased to exist. The adventure will leave the image of an interesting concept, but only a handful of vehicles in circulation.
Created in 2017 by Stefan Krause and Ulrich Kranz after their departure from Faraday Future, under the name Evelozcity, Canoo tried to establish itself in the electric market by focusing on a skateboard platform and a concept different from classic sedans or SUV. But after just over seven years of effort, the company was officially declared bankrupt.
A slow agony
This is not really a surprise, as the situation had become so precarious. Canoo, which employed up to 800 people in 2021, terminated the contracts of its last 82 employees last December.
The company has been mired for more than two years in difficulties combined with questionable financial management (private jet expenses affair). The difficulties are much older, since in its first months, Canoo gave up revealing its sedan project and postponed its mid-size van project to concentrate on derivatives of its minivan.
In 2020, Hyundai sealed a partnership with the start-up which seemed promising, but the Korean manufacturer abandoned a few months later. It was probably at this point that the company's real hopes for survival faded.
Some examples of this minivan or utility versions have been officially delivered to emblematic customers: NASA, the state of Oklahoma, Walmart, the United States Post Office (USPS). These deliveries were highlighted in an attempt to make people think that production in the brand new factory in Oklahoma had started. But in reality, Canoo never actually started production at this factory. The handful of vehicles were actually assembled by a subcontractor in Texas without any real production line being set up.
-The company's assets will soon be sold at auction: machines, but undoubtedly also prototypes…
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