Canoo to build new plant in Oklahoma City

Aug 12, 2023

Canoo CEO Tony Aquila talks to reporters June 8 in Bentonville, Ark. (Dylan Goforth / The Frontier)

OKLAHOMA CITY — An electric vehicle company that already has announced plans to open a plant in Pryor now plans to open a manufacturing plant in Oklahoma City.

Canoo has entered into an agreement to acquire a 630,000-square-foot existing building that sits on a 120-acre site, where it will manufacture its electric Lifestyle Delivery and Lifestyle vehicles, the company announced Wednesday.

The vehicles will be manufactured with an anticipated 2023 delivery date, the company said. The existing building will be outfitted to accommodate a vehicle assembly line with robotics, a paint shop and “upfitting center.”

“The Oklahoma City facility has significant room for expansion and is a proven location for large-scale production, with an established transportation ecosystem, including rail,” said Tony Aquila, Canoo chairman and CEO in a statement.

Aquila said the company is working with third-party partners to start production on its own equipment in Oklahoma City later this month and then plans to “aggressively shift” all of its own equipment into the plant in early 2023.

It will employ more than 500 people and contain a training center. By the end of 2023, Canoo said it anticipates it should be able to manufacture about 20,000 units.

Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office referred comment to Oklahoma Department of Commerce.

A Department of Commerce spokeswoman said Canoo executives asked them not to disclose where the new factory will be located. When asked if the state planned to give them any additional funding, the agency said, “We don’t have anything fully executed yet,” but noted if the company applied for existing incentives, they would be eligible just like any other company.

The Oklahoma City site will be in addition to Canoo’s planned electric vehicle manufacturing plant, customer service and financial center at Pryor’s MidAmerica Industrial Park. That 400-acre campus will house the company’s MegaMicro Factory.

The company had pledged to create more than 2,000 new jobs at an average salary of at least $64,430 and to make an overall capital investment of more than $550 million over the next decade, according to contracts. It also has reportedly received a package of local tax incentives.

The company has not yet finished its plant in Pryor despite announcing plans to build it last summer, though executives have said they’ve broken ground on the project.

The company previously reported it was offered a package of incentives valued at more than $300 million to open the Pryor facility.

Department of Commerce officials previously indicated that they’ll pay Canoo a record-setting $15 million in cash from the Governor’s Quick Action Closing Fund to open the site in Pryor. The funds will be paid out as the company meets a series of performance metrics, and the contract contains bankruptcy protections should the company go under.

The first $3 million will be paid when Canoo completes at least 10% of construction on its Pryor facility by July 1, 2023, and a CPA attests that the company spent at least $48 million on capital expenditures.

As of Thursday, the state has paid Canoo nothing, commerce officials said. All Oklahoma incentives are performance-based, so the company has to provide proof of performance before they receive any funds.

In a May investor call, Canoo leaders had indicated the company was struggling financially and worried about its survival. However, executives said the company was producing up to 12 vehicles a week at its Arkansas location.

Canoo also previously confirmed it had selected Bentonville, Ark., as its headquarters, and that it will establish a research and development center and what it called “an advanced industrialization and low-volume production facility for small package delivery vehicles in the state.” That is expected to create 545 jobs.

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Stecklein covers the Oklahoma Statehouse for CNHI's newspapers and websites. She can be reached at [email protected].

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