Canoo acquires production plant in Oklahoma City

The US-based e-vehicle start-up Canoo, which was still struggling six months ago, has acquired a production plant in Oklahoma City.

It is strategically located with easy access to road and rail and is expected to start producing Canoo's LDV and LV vehicles for delivery to customers as early as 2023. Canoo plans to employ more than 500 people at the vehicle plant and to reach an annual production capacity of 20,000 units by the end of 2023. There is additional capacity to scale production at the site, which Canoo does not disclose its previous owner, the start-up said in a recent statement.

Canoo considered several potential sites before deciding on the Oklahoma City location, it said. As an existing commercial site with more than 630,000 square feet of space ready for occupancy and plenty of room for additional expansion, Canoo is now adapting and equipping the facility to accommodate a full vehicle assembly line with advanced robotics and a paint shop, it said. As with Canoo's other facilities in Pryor, Oklahoma, the vehicle manufacturing facility will also be powered by clean energy.

In addition to Canoo's vehicle manufacturing facility in Oklahoma City, the US company announced only a few weeks ago that it would build a production facility for battery modules in Pryor, a good 200 kilometres away. The conversion work on a 10,000-square-metre existing building is to begin there this year, with delivery and construction of the production facilities scheduled for the first quarter of 2023. So far, Canoo has not given any details on the planned start of production of the battery modules. The plant should be able to achieve a production capacity of about 3.2 GWh of battery modules. The Japanese manufacturer Panasonic has been the cell supplier since the end of 2021.

For the time being, the various plants should be well utilised, as Canoo has landed several attractive orders in recent months. The rental car company Kingbee, for example, recently committed to the purchase of 9300 LDVs, with the option to double this order to up to 18,600 units. This was already the third large order within a few weeks, after first the supermarket chain Walmart and shortly afterwards the fleet company Zeeba had agreed to purchase a total of at least 10,000 LDVs.

In its report for the first quarter of 2022, Canoo reported a net loss of 125 million dollars and "strong doubts" that business operations could continue at all. To stay afloat, it said at the time, the start-up was working diligently to get its business strategy on track while getting LDV production underway. This strategy now seems to be taking hold more and more. Whether Canoo is actually saved, however, remains to be seen in the coming months.