Here’s an EV you probably haven’t seen in person yet. 

I ran into a pre-production Canoo recently while an engineer was charging it at the Denton, TX Electrify America station outside of Fort Worth. 

It’s perhaps best described as a reinvention of the minivan, although Canoo is targeting fleet operators as much or more than families – at least for now. 

What you’ll see in the video at the top of this post is the Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle, which according to Canoo’s website is due to launch in late 2022. 

What makes this minivan special outside of the fact it’s an EV is its visibility. Unlike probably every other current production vehicle, the Canoo gives you an almost entirely unobstructed view ahead thanks to a glass window where the dashboard and hood of most cars would be, which Canoo appropriately calls its “Street View Window.” 

The engineer driving the Canoo told me one of things they heard from professional drivers is that they wanted a vehicle with no blind spots up front, which the Canoo delivers, making it easy to see pedestrians and judge front-end distances. 

While the Canoo engineer I spoke with was very knowledgeable and friendly, he was not allowed to do an official interview. Canoo did give him permission to give me a quick interior tour and a brief ride. Keep in mind what you are seeing in the video and in the photos is a pre-production vehicle, so it’s still being refined and tweaked. 

While many of the controls are located within the touchscreen, there are also separate dual zone climate controls in the center of the dashboard strip. 

The Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle carried a base price of $34,750 at the time of this story’s publication. The base version has up to 250 miles of range from its 80-kWh battery and is available with up to 350-horsepower. 

At launch, the Lifestyle Vehicle will be powered by a rear-wheel-drive motor 

Canoo says it will go from 20 to 80% of charge in 28 minutes on a DC fast charger, although I haven’t seen any reports on what the peak charging speed will be. 

It also comes with redundant drive-by-wire steering and 12 airbags. 

The pre-production version I got a ride in was outfitted like a Premium Edition would be, with the panoramic glass roof and wrap around seating for seven.  

The wrap around seating makes it feel a bit like a lounging room on wheels. 

The Lifestyle Vehicle’s styling reminds me of the original VW Microbus in that it’s groundbreaking and has what is likely the best visibility of any minivan or fleet vehicle in production. 

The California start-up, which is relocating its headquarters to Arkansas, also has teams in Texas, Michigan and Oklahoma. 

Walmart is among the companies that have placed orders for the Canoo.

Canoo has at least 16,800 worth of orders from Walmart, Zeeba and Kingbee for its vehicles. The U.S. Army is also looking at Canoo’s multi-purpose platform.  

After expressing doubt it could financially make it to production in its first quarter 2022 earnings report, things are looking up. 

In its second quarter results Canoo announced over $1 billion in its sales pipeline. 

For those of you that would like the financial details, here are the links to Canoo’s 1st and 2nd quarter 2022 results:

• 1st quarter report
• 2nd quarter report

The 3rd quarter report wasn’t available yet at the time of this post’s publication.

In addition to the variations of its Lifestyle Vehicle, Canoo is also working on a pickup truck with available all-wheel-drive and a more squared off multi-purpose delivery vehicle called the MPDV.  

I can’t judge an automaker’s chance of survival, long-term build quality or driving dynamics based on a ride around a parking lot, but I can say the Canoo makes a great first impression.  

Its closest competitor is likely Volkswagen’s re-invention of the Microbus, the ID Buzz, which isn’t expected to debut in the U.S. until sometime in 2023 as a 2024 model. 

However, the I.D. Buzz is a bigger, more traditional minivan, meaning the Canoo might just be first out of the gate with a nimbler solution. 

If Canoo can make it through the ramp-up stage and really deliver a base-model EV minivan for under $40,000, it may just have a bright future ahead. 

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