Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle to start at $34,750
The Californian eMobility start-up Canoo has priced its first model. Depending on the variant, the model called Lifestyle Vehicle costs between 34,750 and 49,950 dollars. The model name is not the only change from the concept.
First unveiled in 2019, the electric car “with the interior space of a large SUV and the exterior footprint of a compact car” is now called the Lifestyle Vehicle and will start at prices starting at $34,750 before subsidies. The market launch is scheduled for 2022.
Canoo has not released the final build data on the drive system. As “expected specifications”, the company continues to state 220 kW of power, 450 Nm of torque and a range of 400 kilometres. The energy content of the battery is known to be 80 kWh.
It remains to be seen, however, at what price private customers will be able to purchase the vehicle: Canoo has so far only published the price range mentioned above. There will be a delivery, basic and premium version of the vehicle. If the base price of $34,750 refers to the delivery model, the price for the basic private customer version would be unclear. In addition, there is supposed to be a lifestyle and adventure trim for the vehicle, but Canoo will only announce the prices in the coming months.
Compared to the concept, which was clearly positioned as a practical van and people carrier for big cities, some changes have been made. The bumpers, for example, were slightly modified. The most striking change is in the Adventure version, which is now a good deal higher, as the additional ground clearance is intended to increase its utility off the road. However, the ground clearance is still lower than in the pickup model.
The adjusted orientation of the model is likely due to the strategy shift under new CEO Tony Aquila. Aquila had joined the management team as executive chairman in late 2020 and was expected to use his investor experience to guide the company’s IPO. Behind the scenes, Aquila has been driving the company’s realignment – probably also in view of the stock market’s expectations. At the end of April, Aquila also officially took over as CEO from Ulrich Kranz.
According to Aquila’s strategy, Canoo no longer wants to sell its EV-platform to other carmakers, but will focus primarily on selling its own vehicles to fleet operators in future. There is also a fundamental change in sales: while Canoo’s founders wanted to offer the van exclusively on a subscription basis, Aquila is focusing on the classic sale of the vehicles. Against the background of the change in strategy, the cooperation with Hyundai probably also failed.
Canoo is already accepting pre-orders (for a $100 refundable reservation fee), as well as for the MPDV multi-purpose delivery vehicle and the pickup truck, which are to follow in 2023.
However, it is still open who will build the vehicles – until now, cooperation partner Hyundai was considered a hot candidate, but this will not happen. Canoo has not yet named a new contract manufacturer.
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