Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Electric vehicle startup Canoo is being sued by a supplier for breach of contract related to unpaid work on six electric delivery vans ordered by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), insiders told EV on Thursday.
Despite claiming it manufactured the delivery vans at its factory, Canoo outsourced the entire painting and surfacing work, asking its supplier to provide personnel to complete the job.
Insiders from the supplier report told EV that Canoo ‘didn’t do anything in-house’ and has yet to remit payment for the work. The supplier is now pursuing legal action against the electric vehicle startup for breach of contract.
Canoo announced on January 24 that it had secured a purchase order from the USPS for six right-hand drive versions of its LDV 190 electric delivery vans with deliveries planned for the first quarter of 2024.
The first USPS-Canoo delivery vans were spotted in May, with USPS showcasing its first Canoo vehicles during the opening of its sorting facility in Stockton last August.
Recently furloughed workers from the Oklahoma factory disclosed earlier this week that no vehicles had been produced at the facility during their employment spanning roughly a year, local outlet KFOR reported.
Last week, the company announced it had furloughed 23% of the workforce, equivalent to 30 employees, at its Oklahoma plant as part of what it described as a “broader realignment of North American operations.”
“There has not been one single vehicle that has been wholeheartedly produced here in Oklahoma,” said a worker before going into details.
“They don’t have the paint body area up. General Assembly doesn’t even have the full protocols on how to assemble that. It was still training for that. There’s robotics which they don’t have, a lot of them aren’t even configured to run and operate,” the worker added.
The startup disclosed in an SEC filing on Tuesday that it has entered into a $12 million secured revolving credit facility with AFV Management Advisors, LLC, an entity founded by the company’s CEO, Tony Aquila.
Alliance Global Partners analyst C. K. Poe Fratt released a new research note late Tuesday cutting the price target on the shares after the company announced the resignation of its CFO Greg Ethridge and the General Counsel Hector Ruiz.
The analyst lowered the firm’s price target on Canoo to $5 from $14 while maintaining a Buy rating on the shares.
As of the time of writing, Canoo stock is trading 0.5% higher during Thursday’s pre-market session at $0.40.
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
