On Friday night, Canoo announced that it has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and will “immediately cease operations” after failing to secure sufficient funding to continue operations. Prior to the bankruptcy announcement, the electric car startup’s situation was clear: in recent months, the company has lost several executives, announced furloughs, and in November reported to the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it had only $700,000 in the bank, TechCrunch reports.
In a press release announcing the filing, Canoo said it was unable to obtain funding from the Department of Energy’s Office of Loan Programs or from “foreign sources of capital” with which company executives had been in talks. “In light of the fact that these efforts have been unsuccessful, the Board of Directors has made the difficult decision to file for bankruptcy,” the statement said. According to TechCrunch, Canoo owes hundreds of creditors more than $164 million, and its assets amount to about $126 million. According to a statement filed with the Delaware court, Canoo’s assets will be liquidated and the proceeds will be distributed to creditors. In a statement, the company’s CEO Tony Aquila said: “We are sincerely disappointed by what has happened.”
Canoo has produced several electric vans for NASA and a prototype for the U.S. Army, and has signed deals to build larger fleets with companies such as the USPS and Walmart, but only a small number of its vans appear to have ever been realized.
