EV Industry Update: Another One Bites the Dust

Oh, hey, nothing to see here: Just another pure-play EV maker laying off workers in preparation for a bankruptcy filing:

I predicted at the first of 2024 that by the end of this year, every pure-play EV maker in the US not named Tesla would either be bankrupt or verging on that status. Only Rivian has spoiled that prediction, but that was due to huge infusions of billions from the federal government and Volkswagen.

Here’s an excerpt from the story about this company, Canoo:

“Canoo was supposed to bring automotive manufacturing back to the state of Oklahoma, and the company received taxpayer-funded, performance-based incentives totaling $100 million spaced out over 10 years to do exactly that,” Jalopnik said, adding, “But the way things are going right now, it’s questionable whether Canoo will last long enough to bring those promised steady jobs to the Sooner State.”

A former employee provided Oklahoma news outlet KFOR with deeper insight into the startup, alleging that it has produced nothing…

“They have tons of equipment,” the former employee said. “It looks great. They have literally everything to run an entire assembly line for cars.”

Last December, Canoo proudly announced it had built its first three vehicles in the Oklahoma City plant, before selling them to the state.

The former employee told News 4 that “made in Oklahoma” announcement gave him a good laugh.

“I can tell you, those did not come off our assembly line,” the former employee said. “If you talk to any Canoo employee, they’ll tell you those do not come off the assembly line.”

He says Canoo never paid the company that provided the software that the machines use to operate.

The former employee also says the company only ran the machines when showing them off to media or investors.

“The majority of those folks that were employed there, especially those hourly people, were just standing around twiddling their thumbs,” the former employee said.

The company has boasted about partnerships with Walmart, DoD, and the USPS over the years…

[End]

I was informed yesterday that the Biden farce government is set to leave office with about $500 billion in undedicated funds leftover from the IRA, the 2021 Infrastructure law and other braindead legislation passed by congress over the past 4 years. Probably half of that money relates to green energy subsidies for non-viable companies like Canoo.

Every penny of those subsidies should be clawed back and redirected to other uses by the Trump administration. You know, like to pay for the border wall and deportation program. Every damn penny.

That is all.