Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
In the past two weeks, Canoo has furloughed 30 workers at its Oklahoma factory, lost both its CFO and General Counsel, and faced accusations from employees over alleged mismanagement and misleading production claims, while its stock plummeted over 50% to a new low of $0.37.
In early 2024, on January 17, the electric delivery van and truck maker announced it delivered the first units of its LDV130 model to Kingbee, a U.S. van rental provider.
At the time, the company mentioned that the delivery event was “part of a phased ramp-up manufacturing approach in Oklahoma City,” where it has its manufacturing plant.
However, recently furloughed workers from that factory disclosed late Tuesday that no vehicles had been produced at the facility during their employment spanning roughly a year, local outlet KFOR reported.
“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.
Asked specifically about the January announcement, a worker called it “false information” adding that the vehicles that Canoo said were made here in Oklahoma “were not made here in Oklahoma”.
“Those vehicles were produced in Torrance, California, shipped to Oklahoma where they had the VINs assigned to them in Oklahoma. That way, they can state that they were built here. There has not been one single vehicle that has been produced here in Oklahoma,” the worker added.
Following the report, a Canoo spokesperson reached out to the Oklahoma-based publication saying, “These allegations are false. Consistent with the standards of the American Automobile Labeling Act (AALA), Canoo proudly manufactures its vehicles in Oklahoma City for its customers in the U.S. and abroad.”
“I just want the public and the Oklahoma taxpayers to know the truth about what’s going on there,” the worker stated before adding that the EV maker still didn’t reach out regarding the promised extension of the health insurance.
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.
Additionally, 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.
The analyst lowered the firm’s price target on Canoo to $5 from $14 while maintaining a Buy rating on the shares.
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.”
Written by Cláudio Afonso | LinkedIn | X
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