Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Electric vehicle startup Canoo said on Wednesday it decided to refund all customer deposits it has accumulated since the unveiling of its first models in May 2021.
Three and a half years ago, the Texas-headquartered company opened orders for both the lifestyle vehicle, MPDV and pickup truck with a $100 deposit per vehicle.
The Lifestyle Vehicle was planned to arrive in the consumer market in 2022 with a starting price of about $35,000 for the lower-end variant.
Amid the third quarter earnings results, the company’s CEO Tony Aquila said Canoo “made the difficult decision to refund customer deposits for consumer vehicles” as it is focused solely on fleet customers.
“In this phase, we will be solely focused on our fleet order books. Therefore, we have made the difficult decision to refund customer deposits for consumer vehicles,” the chief executive said before justifying the decision.
“We appreciate all of our consumer orders we have received to date, but as many of you know, entering the consumer market is not profitable or viable for us until we have scale. Thus, our focus is on fewer high-credit-grade customers that are serviceable and profitable at lower volumes,” he added.
Canoo reported on Wednesday $900,000 of revenue, an increase from the $605,000 posted in the second quarter of the year and 73% higher than a year ago.
Canoo said adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $43 million, down from $46 million in the third quarter of 2023.
The company led by Tony Aquila withdrew its 2024 revenue guidance in September, along with projections for its manufacturing run rate, vehicle production, and deliveries for 2024 and beyond. Previously, Canoo had forecasted an annual revenue between $50 million and $100 million.
Earlier this month, the company reported that its Chief Financial Officer, Greg Ethridge, and General Counsel, Hector Ruiz, both resigned effective October 31.
As reported by EV earlier today, Fidelity’s subsidiary Geode Capital Management has increased its stake in Canoo by 25.6% between July and September.
As exclusively reported by EV on Tuesday, the UK’s largest electric fleet operator, Royal Mail, has started piloting Canoo’s electric delivery vehicles. The pilots with the British postal company began earlier this month as Royal Mail aims to further electrify its fleet of over 43,000 delivery vehicles.
Last month, Canoo said it received Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) regulatory certification in the UK, confirming that its right-hand drive electric commercial vans meet the national technical requirements.
Last week, the startup announced it entered into a $12 million secured revolving credit facility with AFV Management Advisors, LLC, an entity founded by the company’s CEO Tony Aquila.
Two years ago, in November 2022, Canoo said it had acquired $2 billion in customer orders claiming they were ready for the start of production set for later that month.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
