Electric utility vehicle Canoo has filed for bankruptcy and ceased all operations.
The startup announced its filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Jan. 17 in the US Bankruptcy Court of Delaware. This will lead to the government appointing a trustee to oversee the liquidation of Canoo's assets and the distribution of proceeds to creditors, the initiative confirmed in a press release.
Canoo says the cash-strapped decision is due to unsuccessful efforts to get more money from the Department of Energy's loan program and foreign investors. Canoo went public four years agoraising about $600 million, but the capital-intensive process of developing and manufacturing new cars has left it looking for other financing options.
Canoo Lifestyle vehicle
Canoo said he has a large number of orders from customers like Walmart, but has been able to deliver smaller numbers of demonstration vehicles, including NASA, the Department of Defense, and the US Postal Service. It specialized in electric vans built on a skateboard chassis, but also produced two truck designs, the latter intended for military use and produced only in prototype form.
As first reported by TechCrunch, Canoo's bankruptcy filing reveals the startup owes about $164 million debtors while holding $126 million worth of assets.
Canoo in December laid off 82 workers and closed an Oklahoma assembly plant, then placed the remaining workers on what it called “unpaid leave.” Earlier this year, it bought equipment from UK-defunct Arrival for use at the Oklahoma facility.
Canoo American Bulldog
In 2017, the company was started as Evelozcity by many of the former Faraday's future managers, even though most of the ingredients they introduced left in the past. That corresponds to a change in direction under the current CEO Tony Aquilawho opposed Canoo in its original plan to sell van-like EVs by signing up for commercial vehicles and government contracts.
Although the broad-strokes plan to produce commercial vehicles remains the same as under Akwila's leadership, the details have changed. Canoo revealed manufacturing plans with VDL of the Netherlands, then greenlighted them, with subsequent business moves to Arkansas and Texas.