The Army is interested in the company’s scalable platform that can be adapted to many uses
Canoo has already struck a deal with NASA to develop an astronaut transport vehicle
The start-up company plans to begin production of its first vehicle later this year
Start-up electric car company Canoo made the news recently when Walmart announced it would buy 4,500 units of its upcoming electric delivery van and when NASA tasked it to create an astronaut transport vehicle.
Now, the small company is being considered by the US Army as a potential supplier of electric vehicles for military applications.
With the shift to electric power that is observed throughout the entire automotive industry, the Army will have to find ways to adopt EVs as its next vehicles.
General Motors had already been contracted to build military versions of its new GMC Hummer EV to be used for tactical operations, but since the needs of the Army are varied, different types of electric vehicles will be needed.
This is why Canoo attracted the attention of the Defense Department. Indeed, the small automaker is working on a modular platform that can be easily adapted for use in many kinds of electric vehicles, which would make building all sorts of military vehicles easier and more cost-effective than having to develop them all individually from the ground up.
As mentioned previously, this would not be the first time Canoo collaborated with the American Government since only last month, the small company was tasked by NASA to build an astronaut transport vehicle that will be used to shuttle astronauts to and from the launching pad for future moon missions.
Canoo already released images of its future vehicle, which show a fairly standard-looking Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle (LDV), the same model that will be sold to the public and to Walmart.
Inside, however, this shuttle will be very different since it will have to be able to transport four astronauts, three crew members, a driver, four cooling units, five equipment bags, and a pad transfer bag. NASA gave Canoo a year to develop this vehicle, which will have to be ready in June 2023.
These three new contracts will help the company get out of the financial troubles it was in during the first quarter of the year when it lost so much money it was on the verge of bankruptcy.
