Canoo is moving closer to ramping up a production line for its EVs later this year. Here’s a look at what the EV startup has been up to so far in 2023.
In April it began a long-term lease for its 500,000 square feet assembly line in Oklahoma City.
Then in June Canoo started posting photos showing heavy equipment being moved in as the line is set up for volume production.
Those photos followed video (see top of post) released by Canoo giving viewers their first sneak peak inside the future assembly line.
In its first quarter report Canoo repeated it remains on track to end 2023 at a 20,000-vehicle run rate, ramping up to 40,000 vehicles in 2024 at the Oklahoma City plant that is currently under construction.
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Canoo received some good press from NASA which showed off photos of Artemis Launch Director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Assistant Launch Director Jeremy Graeber and astronaut Doug Wheelock meeting with Canoo reps to test drive the Canoo Transportation Vehicles for Artemis II at the company’s research & development facility in California.
NASA and the U.S. Army are among the government agencies looking at Canoo’s multi-purpose EV platforms. Canoo also went after new customers in Dallas at Government Fleet Expo 2023, which is the nation’s largest public fleet conference.
Speaking of customers, Kingbee Truck Rentals is now advertising Canoo vehicles on its website.
It’s telling customers that the 9,300 Canoo vehicles it ordered are scheduled to start shipping in September.
It seems unlikely Canoo will hit that timeframe with any sort of volume shipment, but regardless of how many EV vans it ultimately delivers, Kingbee and Canoo are showing off the first Canoo van outfitted for Kingbee.
Kingbee says on its Instagram page that its clients are quote, “charged up with excitement. We didn’t just convert gas-guzzling hearts, we gave them a high-voltage shock.”
The big question for investors is whether Canoo can hang on long enough to start fulfilling its order book. At last check it was valued around $2.8 billion and included fleet customers like Walmart.
Canoo lost almost $91 million in the first quarter. NASDAQ has notified Canoo it is in danger of being delisted because its stock price has fallen below a dollar a share for 30 consecutive business days. The NASDAQ has given Canoo until September 25 to get its stock price back into compliance.
EV Rider was fortunate enough to snag a ride in Canoo’s Lifestyle Vehicle while it was at a Texas charging stop last year. In case you missed it, here’s the video:
Editorial disclosure: The author of this post is a Canoo stockholder.