ChinaAutoInfo

US car startup Canoo, once a hot player in the industry, is currently in trouble. It initiated a round of layoffs in mid-December and on December 18th, announced that employees would be sent home for mandatory unpaid leave.

According to a report by Carscoops on the 24th, Canoo's latest exposed issue includes false advertising about producing electric vehicles in Oklahoma.

In November 2023, Canoo announced that it had delivered the first batch of 'Made in Oklahoma' electric vehicles to the state government. The governor celebrated this, stating: 'For the first time in 17 years, the automotive manufacturing industry has returned to Oklahoma.' However, the reality is not so simple.

A former Canoo employee claimed that the factory did not produce any cars and revealed the company's financial difficulties. The employee said: 'They hired too many people, too quickly, and at too high a salary level.' He added: 'Everyone has a 'boss' title, everyone wants to be someone else's boss... As a result, no one is doing real work. The factory is fully equipped and looks very professional, theoretically capable of assembling a complete car production line.'

Nevertheless, the former employee unequivocally pointed out that the electric vehicles produced did not come from this factory. 'I can tell you that those cars did not come off our production line... If you ask any Canoo employee, they will tell you that these cars did not go through our production line. All these cars were entirely handcrafted by AFV company in Justin, Texas, and after manufacturing, they shipped the cars here. Most of the cars, in fact, 90%, just had their body stickers changed.'

Additionally, in April of this year, Canoo's CEO was exposed for spending twice the company's 2023 revenue on private jets. By August, the company was sued for failing to repay debts on time. Subsequently, in November, the company laid off 23% of its workforce.