Why NASA's official electric car could soon disappear

The automotive industry is a merciless world, where survival is far from easy. And many companies know this, and many have paid the price. Because the competition is particularly tough, and many start-ups have failed. We think, for example, of Fisker, which went bankrupt this summer, or of Neta, the Chinese firm which could suffer the same fate.

Canoo on the edge of the precipice

But all these brands are not the only ones to suffer significant difficulties, often linked to strategic errors. This is in fact also the case for a start-up that is relatively little known in Europe, since it is based in the United States. This is Canoo, a company founded in 2017 under the name Evelozcity by Stefan Krause and Ulrich Kranz and headquartered in Arkansas. The latter specializes in the development of electric vans intended for rental and carpooling.

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However, everything seemed to be going well for the young company, which had unveiled in 2022 a car intended to transport NASA astronauts to the launch pad towards the Moon. And this as part of the Artemis mission planned for next year. But it could be that this collaboration will never ultimately come to fruition, as suggested by an article recently published by the site TechCrunch. The latter indicates that Canoo has made a particularly worrying decision for its future.

It has in fact placed several dozen of its remaining employees in a “ obligatory unpaid break “. A kind of unpaid leave therefore, which portends the worst for the company. Because this period will continue until the end of the yearat least, as specified in the email sent to employees. He also indicated that employees would no longer be able to access Canoo systems from last Friday. On the other hand, social benefits would be maintained until the end of December.

All this does not look good at all for the young company. Because the latter had already placed around a hundred of its employees on technical unemploymentfollowing its decision to close its assembly plant located in Oklahoma. The cause was a lack of funding, when Canoo had already closed its Los Angeles offices, which housed its head office. Last November, the company indicated that it no longer had only $700,000 in his bank accountwhich leaves very little to hope for survival.

A very difficult situation

And that's not all, because the American manufacturer, whose Lifestyle van could have inspired the aborted Apple Car, has also lost several of its senior executives in previous years. Among them, its technical director, its financial director as well as its legal director, who everyone decided to leave the ship before it finally sinks. Which contributed to plunging the company into an even more catastrophic situation, with no one left at the helm, apart from its CEO, Tony Aquila.

The latter has not yet spoken on this subject for the moment. In any case, the company does not admit defeat, because it has just announced a reverse reverse stock splitat a rate of 1 to 20. The latter comes into force from this Tuesday, December 24, as explained by the American site The Verge. According to Canoo, “ this consolidation aims to keep its shares listed on the Nasdaq exchange and to attract “a broader group of institutional and retail investors ».

Its objective is now to raise funds to hope to survive, then continue its development. But nothing is won yet, since analysts had already warned the manufacturer, affirming that it is on the verge of exhaustion of liquidity since 2022. Let's hope that it does not end up suffering the same fate as Fisker , but rather that of Rivian, which benefited from an investment of 5 billion dollars from Volkswagen. What save it from a planned bankruptcy if nothing had been done.