EV startup Canoo is pushing ahead with mass production at its Oklahoma plant

According to foreign media reports, the second quarter earnings report of electric vehicle startup Canoo shows that the company has hired hundreds of employees and is targeting production, but key milestones including finding battery suppliers still exist. Just a few weeks before Canoo released its earnings report, the company just held its first investor relations day. At the event day, Canoo announced dutch company VDL Nedcar as its contract manufacturing partner for lifestyle cars.

At the time, Canoo estimated that the Nedcar plant would produce up to 1,000 vehicles for the U.S. and European markets in 2022, with a target of 15,000 by 2023. On Monday's earnings call, CEO Tony Aquila said the company currently expects to produce 25,000 units in 2023.

In addition, Canoo also offers the latest plans to build a factory in the United States, which the company calls a "giant micro factory" for pickup trucks and multi-purpose transports. In June, the electric car startup announced plans to build its first plant in Oklahoma. The state has pledged $300 million in non-dilutive fiscal incentives to support the facility and second phase of production.

Aquila said on Monday's earnings call: "This two-pronged strategy is important for several reasons. As a new OEM, partnering with Nedcar will allow us to refine our manufacturing processes. While increasing our production expertise, this will be deployed at our Oklahoma manufacturing facility, which will allow us to geographically diversify our manufacturing operations and enable us to increase our commitments, products, and quantities to adapt to changing market needs and establish distribution flexibility. ”

Aquila said about a third of Oklahoma's investments will be in place in place in the first 36 months. The funding will help the company get into the Gamma phase, which means Canoo is ready for release. Canoo's total workforce is increasing year on year, from 230 to 656, 70% of whom are hardware and software engineers. The startup's operating expenses increased from $19.8 million to $104.3 million, with most of the increase coming from R&D spending.

The increase in pre-revenue spending suggests that Canoo is advancing its production targets, but there is still a lot of work to be done before the Oklahoma plant starts. Canoo is in the final stages of selecting building managers, architects and engineering firms, and there could be more updates on construction progress next quarter, Aquila said.

The company is still working on making a final decision on battery partners in the third quarter. This move is becoming increasingly important as more and more traditional OEMs struggle to control supply chains through battery joint ventures. Like other companies in the industry, Canoo is grappling with the semiconductor supply chain, but the company says its streamlined manufacturing process means its cars will need fewer chips to run.

On Investment Relations Day, Canoo announced that it had completed 500,000 miles of beta testing. As of June 30, Aquila said the company had locked in engineering and design to begin gamma construction.

"We also purchased 87 percent of our parts, compared to 74 percent in the first quarter of this year," Aquila said. Excluding bulk materials, we purchased 95% of the total. Our CTO and his team have engineered 67% of lifestyle automotive components and turned them into tools. ”

Aquila said Canoo will begin counting down to standard operating procedures for its lifestyle cars in the fourth quarter. Lifestyle cars may be closer to production, but Aquila said that of the 9,500 non-binding refundable bookings, canoo's other two models , pickup trucks and multi-purpose delivery trucks , are the most popular.