Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
Two years ago, the EV startup Canoo announced that its order book had grown to “more than $2 billion,” claiming these orders were ready for production, which was scheduled to begin later that month. However, the company was never able to start mass production in Oklahoma, as revealed by multiple former employees.
As of this writing, the company’s shares are trading at $1.45 in Thursday’s pre-market session—down from approximately $700 when accounting for multiple reverse stock splits over the past two years.
A former Canoo employee told EV that the company’s manufacturing partner, Zion, locked the robots on the main production line out of operation due to non-payment. As a result, Canoo has reportedly been unable to use the robots since October.
“All the robots were in ghost mode, which is just a program to make them look like they were in production,” the former employee told EV. Zion was founded in 2015 and is Canoo’s production partner.
Canoo announced earlier this week that its second reverse stock split of 2024 became effective. After the 1 for 20 reverse split, the company’s stock price returned to above $1.00.
The stock, which was trading just above 10 cents before the reverse split, closed 7% lower on Tuesday as investors face another major dilution of its shares. Thanks to the reverse stock split, Canoo’s shares are now trading above Nasdaq’s $1 minimum bid price threshold, a critical requirement to continue listing.
According to an email sent to staff last week and seen by EV, the company expects it to last “a few weeks” while promising an update on the situation in the first week of January.
Affected workers “may not do work” and the company’s system will be suspended.
While apologizing for the timing of the announcement, the company led by Tony Aquila wrote, “Please take this time to have a restful and enjoyable holiday season with your family.”
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
