Canoo engineer shares insight on company's final days

An engineer who worked, for now, bankrupt electric car manufacturer Canoo is sharing what they say were indicators the company was inching closer to a freefall. Now, the company is liquidating its assets.

Production capability in limbo

The employee, who asked not to be named out of concern for future employment, said suppliers had not been paid since they began with the company. Their perception was only the executive team, which was based in North Texas, fully understood the capital issues facing the company.

Publicly, it had always been understood the forecast was bad, but the engineer said executives told employees just enough capital was being raised to make it to the next stage.

Honing in on Oklahoma City employees

In the fall, more than 100 of the company's California employees were asked to move to Oklahoma. The employee who spoke with News 9 said those who did were mostly on work visas and left with no choice.

Shortly after the consolidation in offices, the engineer said the heat was eventually turned off in the Oklahoma City office in October. Barely two months later, 82 of the Oklahoma City employees were furloughed, including the employee who spoke with News 9.

After another month, they eventually received notice of termination days before the company announced it had filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Related coverage: Canoo Unexpectedly Furloughs OKC Factory Workers Amid Financial Uncertainty

Where did it fail?

According to the engineer, the product developed by Canoo was solid. The cars worked, were drivable, and had no issues.

But production was virtually non-existent, plagued both by what they say was the inability to pay suppliers, and high costs of licenses to utilize certain pieces of software.

"Our whole thing is to be much more self-reliant and to be able to have an interchangeable workforce that is working here in Oklahoma," CEO Tony Aquila told reporters in 2023.

Ultimately, they said engineers and developers did what they were supposed to; there simply was not enough capital to move to the next stage.