Canoo (NASDAQ: GOEV) has announced that it will sell 50 million shares of its common stock to investment group Alliance Global Partners.
Like many other EV startups, Canoo has consistently faced issues with financing. In mid-2022, the company was even looking down the barrel of bankruptcy, and without last-minute orders of thousands of vehicles, the company would not be here today. Now, as the American startup looks to produce its first EV offering, the Lifestyle Vehicle, it has announced it will sell 50 million shares of its common stock to cover costs.
Canoo said the 50 million shares will bring in a total of $52.5 million and be used for “general working capital purposes.”
Currently, Canoo is establishing two manufacturing facilities in Oklahoma. The first plant, located in Oklahoma City, is scheduled to begin production this year and is aiming for a run rate of 20,000 vehicles annually. The second production location is in Pryor, Oklahoma, and is slated to produce Panasonic battery cells, though the company has not stated when battery production will commence.
Until now, the company has been able to produce a select few test vehicles through a partnership with Roush, an auto manufacturing partner and performance parts maker. However, volume production has not yet started. During the company’s Q3 2022 Earnings Call, it said it plans to produce the first sellable vehicles in the latter half of Q1 2023. By the second half of this year, Canoo expects to scale production to an annual run-rate of 20,000 units.
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Canoo was not immediately available for comment on its production status to Teslarati.
Along with these mounting production costs, Canoo has an ever-growing list of customer orders. Foremost has to be the order of 4,500 vans from Walmart, which kept Canoo afloat mid-last year. Still, the automaker also has orders from fleet rental agency Zeeba (3,000 vans) and construction vehicle rental service KingBee (9,300 vans). On top of these orders, the EV startup has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to produce and test battery modules. Not to forget, Canoo still has thousands of consumer reservations for its Lifestyle Vehicle van and pickup truck variant.
Many remain hopeful that Canoo will be able to deliver vehicles over the coming year, mainly thanks to its recent purchases of enormous production facilities. However, with the fabled “production hell” still looming ahead, Canoo’s path forward is anything but clear.
Disclosure: William Johnson is not a Canoo shareholder.
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