According to TechCrunch, electric vehicle (EV) startup Canoo has filed for bankruptcy and will "cease operations immediately."
The company is currently liquidating its assets under Chapter 7 in the Delaware Bankruptcy Court. In a press release issued late on January 17, Canoo stated that it had "engaged in talks with foreign investors" but failed to secure funding. Additionally, the company noted it could not obtain funds from the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Programs Office, which has been actively granting loans in the final days of President Biden's tenure.
In its bankruptcy filing (including those of its subsidiaries), Canoo disclosed total liabilities exceeding $164 million, while its assets are valued at only about $126 million.
Reports indicate that in mid-December last year, Canoo required its remaining employees to take a "mandatory unpaid leave," which was expected to last at least until the end of 2024. Prior to this, the company had also halted production at its assembly plant in Oklahoma. Throughout 2024, Canoo struggled to ramp up deliveries of its electric vans, and several executives departed the company. As of mid-November, the company had just $700,000 in bank deposits.
Signs of Canoo's bankruptcy became increasingly apparent in the past week. For instance, Reddit users noticed the removal of a billboard outside the company's office in Justin, Texas. Several furloughed employees told TechCrunch they had received official termination notices, while some consumers who had paid a $100 deposit for new vehicles reported receiving refunds.
Canoo was founded in 2017 and announced in August 2020 its plans to merge with a special purpose acquisition company, Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. IV. The merger was finalized in December 2020, raising approximately $600 million. In the years following its listing, Canoo produced a limited number of electric vans, which were delivered to trial partners, including the U.S. Postal Service, the Department of Defense, and NASA.
The company also attempted to collaborate with Walmart, which agreed in 2022 to purchase up to 10,000 electric vehicles from Canoo. However, this agreement was largely non-binding and posed minimal risk to Walmart.
