No, this is not a Double toy – what you see above (and in the renderings below) is the design of a pickup truck from the electric vehicle startup Canoo in California.
Revealed in a leak on Reddit on Wednesday, and later confirmed for Reuters, the revolving EV truck is not due to leave until 2023. At that time, Tesla’s Cybertruck, electric Hummer pickup, Ford’s electric F-150 and Rivian’s EV pickup should all be on the road. Canoo said it would begin ordering its pickup in advance later this year, but did not disclose details of prices. The startup is also reportedly in negotiations with other states for a “microfactory”, where a contract manufacturer would build the vehicles.
The toy truck shows just how far Canoo is willing to push the design of the minibus-style vehicle that debuted in 2019, which originally planned to sell only by subscription.
Canoo has undergone many changes since it debuted its first vehicle. It is now a publicly traded company after the merger with a special purpose acquisition company in late 2020. Its new chief executive also redirected the company to the sale of commercial vehicles based on the original design of the van and the technological platform that the feeds.
But all this does not mean that Canoo is exactly trying to make vehicles for regular consumers. This new truck bridges the gap between the two sets of customers, in part thanks to the fact that it is loaded with all kinds of utility features.
There are several folding and folding work surfaces on the Canoo pickup, one on the vehicle’s nose and one on the side of the truck’s bucket. There is an extension that can be pulled out to make the bed a few feet longer. There are power outlets (120V and USB) dotting the interior of the bed and the storage compartments. The promotional images also show the truck adorned with a roof rack and, in an attempt to capitalize on the growing “van life” market, an “overlander” finish with a caravan and a pop-up tent.
All of this according to the vision of the original Canoo vehicle, which was decorated with fastening panels inside that the company imagined that people could use to customize and personalize the vehicle. And the ability to use the new truck’s modular features in so many different ways – and customize them from the start when ordering – is what Tony Aquila, the startup’s new CEO, hopes to be a big selling point for businesses. small and more adventurous consumers that Canoo targets.
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“When the person who works there sees this, they think: ‘I can have a better quality of life with this vehicle and I can get a return on capital.’ And each of these areas is a space to generate return on capital, that’s why we spend so much money to develop the most intelligent [truck] bed, ”Aquila said in a video announcing the truck. (Canoo spent $ 47 million on research and development in 2018, $ 137 million in 2019 and $ 52 million in the first three quarters of 2020, according to a recent government document).
The sloping roof of the truck also accompanies the original Canoo vehicle, although it is a much more familiar design feature for a van. Fortunately for Canoo, Tesla has already started to expand the public’s imagination about what a pickup looks like.
“That was our dream, to make sure that we had a vehicle that would bring a truck to the market that really shocked people just for the visual and then the functional,” said Aquila in the video. “This is for America. That’s what built America, anyway. ”
Canoo’s truck will be built on the same platform that powers the other vehicles proposed by the company, which means that it largely shares the same specifications in various configurations. The most expensive four-wheel drive truck will have about 600 horsepower and more than 320 kilometers of range, while the lower-cost versions will reach 160 kilometers of range and feature a single engine at the rear. (Aquila said Reuters he thinks Canoo can find a way to increase the range to 300 miles the moment it’s released.) The truck also uses the same wire brake and wire steering system that Canoo has developed for its other vehicles, which reduces the complexity.
These technologies have made it possible for the startup to couple so many different projects to the same underlying technology platform. They are also things that aroused the interest of Apple, which at a certain point wanted to acquire Canoo, because The Verge reported exclusively earlier this year.
March 10 update, 9:58 pm ET: Added details of the Reuters report.