Canoo will deliver 550 electric shuttles to Los Angeles
The relatively short statement to the press does not mention Prime Time Shuttle will invest in the deal or when the electric shuttles will be delivered. However, it says that it is a purchase agreement “over multiple years.”
Prime Time Shuttle is active in 34 US states. The Canoo shuttles will only be used in and around LA, California. However, the company has “long term plans of integrating EVs to Prime Time markets outside of California.” The statement does not specifically mention whether these EVs could also come from Canoo.
The latter has meanwhile ramped up vehicle production at its Oklahoma plant. According to the manufacturer, the first units of its Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle (LDV) models will be delivered “to key customers and partners in 2023 with increasing units in 2024. ”
The vehicle sits on a multi-purpose platform and can thus be configured based on the customers’ needs. Canoo initially planned with an annual output of 20,000 vehicles by the end of 2023.
Canoo recently received conditional funding for its vehicle and battery assembly plant. The state of Oklahoma and the Cherokee Nation agreed to provide up to 113 million dollars in subsidies – if Canoo meets its own investment and job creation targets. The manufacturer agreed to invest more than 320 million dollars in the vehicle plant as well as the Pryor battery assembly plant to create more than 1,360 jobs.
Canoo has not consistently made positive headlines recently. In spring 2022, the start-up questioned its own future and admitted to financial difficulties that threatened its existence. In the summer of 2022, the company was able to land a major contract from the US retail giant Walmart. Later, however, it became known from a stock exchange announcement that Canoo had to make Walmart some expensive promises for the order – such as discounted stock options and also the obligation not to sell any vehicles to Amazon for the duration of the delivery deal and also not to let itself be taken over by the online giant.
In August, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also fined the Californian electric car startup $1.5 million (€1.37 million) for allegedly misleading investors around the IPO. In the course of this, there were also personal consequences for the then-CEO Ulrich Kranz. According to its own investigation, the SEC considers it proven that Canoo deceived investors with unrealistic sales forecasts amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars before it went public in 2020 as part of an SPAC merger.
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