Electric car startup EVelozity has changed its name to Canoo and announced an ambitious plan to launch four vehicles.
EVelozity was founded by the former chief financial officer of Faraday Future, Stefan Krause, and Ulrich Kranz, the chief technology officer from Faraday Future.
The company has been quietly developing its electric vehicle technologies over the past couple of years and in early 2018, recruited the former chief executive of Opel, Karl-Thomas Neumann, to join its board of directors.
The Drive reports that the company is in the midst of developing a skateboard platform that will be used by its future models. This platform will incorporate the battery pack and electric motor into the chassis and different bodies will be placed on these underpinnings to create distinct models. Initial plans from the company call for a total of four models to be based on this platform, the first of which is scheduled to hit U.S. roads in 2021. Canoo’s powertrain should be able to offer a 300-mile (482 km) of range.
In a bid to reduce the costs of its vehicles, Canoo won’t build its vehicles in-house and will instead rely on a number of contract manufacturers in the United States and China.
Canoo intends on selling its vehicles through personalized subscription plans which bundle together insurance and running costs. The startup also wants to operate a number of ride-hailing and delivery services and will keep its models on the roads and up-to-date with frequent refurbishments as opposed to replacing them.
While explaining the company’s name change, company boss Stefan Krause suggested it works well for the vehicles the company intends on building.
“We picked Canoo because it sounds distinctive, looks cool, and creates a feeling of both relaxation and movement. For thousands of years, a canoe has been a simple, sustainable transportation device used all over the world.”
