Canoo to Build 4,500 Walmart Delivery EVs
The two companies, though very different in size, share the same home base of Bentonville, AR, and will now share a common goal.
It wasn’t long ago that American EV startup Canoo announced a major deal: NASA tapped them for its Artemis lunar exploration program, which aims to send Americans back to the moon by the end of 2024, to transport astronauts, crew and equipment to the launch pad. While very cool, that’s not a deal that affects the lives of any American not in the space program. But Canoo’s latest partnership with another American giant certainly will have an impact on many.
The Arkansas-based EV startup announced it will sell 4,500 of its EVs to Walmart as the megastore chain looks to expand its grocery delivery fleet. The Lifestyle Delivery Vehicles, or LDVs, are expected to hit the road next year, but Walmart says some advanced deliveries will be made in the Dallas-Fort Worth market in the next few weeks.
Canoo offers four products: The Lifestyle Vehicle (which Walmart will use), the larger MPDV (think UPS or FedEx truck), the Pickup Truck (which resembles the Lifestyle Vehicle, but has a bed) and the Platform (a stripped chassis).
Walmart says the Canoo LDVs will be driven by store associates to deliver online orders. The brick-and-mortar giant has 3,800 locations, which the company says are located within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population. Canoo claims an estimated range of 250 miles, 120 cubic feet of cargo space and a payload of 1,464 lbs.
The ties that bond these two partners is the town of Bentonville, Arkansas, home to each of their headquarters. “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 David Guggina, Walmart’s SVP of Innovation and Automation, in the company’s initial announcement.
Walmart is the latest mega-company to join the EV race. Just a few days ago, Amazon deployed its first Rivian delivery EVs in several major U.S. markets. While the initial announcement sent Rivian’s stock through the roof, Amazon has since reported a nearly $4 billion loss on its investment in the Irvine, CA EV company.
Images: Canoo
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