Autonomous and electric mobility startup Canoo which even helped Hyundai develop the EGMP platform at the heart of the Kia EV6 and Ioniq 5 EVs has been granted a big order for electric cars by retail giant Walmart. Only recently, Canoo moved its headquarters from California to Bentonville, Arkansas which is the home turf of Walmart and now it is sitting on an order for 4,500 electric vans.
“We are proud to have been selected by Walmart,” said Canoo chairman and CEO Tony Aquila. Aquila who previously was an investor in the company was elevated to chairman and CEO in 2020 just before it went public via a SPAC merger.
Walmart like Amazon is trying to make its logistics operations sustainable. Amazon has a massive deal with electric truck maker Rivian for 100,000 electric delivery vans and has also invested in the car company. Walmart also plans on going carbon neutral by 2040 but its plan for sourcing vehicles is more diversified. It ordered 5,000 vehicles from GM-backed BrightDrop which also makes electric vans.
Walmart is in the midst of an unprecedented growth phase as now it claims that 80 per cent of deliveries can be achieved on the same day in the US.
“We’re encouraged that by being located in close proximity to the Canoo headquarters, we have the advantage to collaborate and innovate in real-time as well as the opportunity to aid in the creation of manufacturing and technology jobs here in our home state of Arkansas,” said Walmart SVP of innovation and automation David Guggina.
Canoo began operations as Evelozcity in 2017 and was rebranded as Canoo in 2019. It revealed a Volkswagen-style micro bus EV which was to be made available via a subscription model, but then it broke away from its deal with Hyundai and had to pivot. For a time even Apple was interested in acquiring it but then Apple instead hired its co-founder and former CEO instead.
Its reliability hasn’t been bullet-proof as it has had two battery fire incidents in the last year so this deal with Walmart is certainly a breather. This also comes after NASA selected the Canoo EV for the Artemis mission.
