Walmart is buying 4,500 electric delivery vehicles from Canoo

Enlarge / A Canoo LDV wearing Walmart colors. The retailer should receive its first LDVs in 2023. (credit: Canoo)

Electric vehicle startup Canoo announced on Tuesday that Walmart has placed an order for 4,500 of its Lifestyle Delivery Vehicles. Canoo and Walmart are customizing the LDV for last-mile deliveries, with added cargo space instead of a front passenger seat and slide-out shelves in the back designed to fit totes used by the retail giant.

"Our LDV has the turning radius of a small passenger vehicle on a parking-friendly, compact footprint, yet the payload and cargo space of a commercial delivery vehicle. This is the winning algorithm to seriously compete in the last-mile delivery race, globally," said Tony Aquila, investor, chairman, and CEO of Canoo. "Walmart’s massive store footprint provides a strategic advantage in today’s growing 'Need it now' mindset and an unmatched opportunity for growing EV demand, especially at today’s gas prices."

Canoo has had a rocky time of late. Founded by Faraday Future alumni and now based, like Walmart, in Bentonville, Arkansas, it originally planned a subscription-only electric van, then underwent a management change and a merger with a special purpose acquisition company that resulted in a pivot. In April of this year it won a contract to provide NASA with a new astronaut transport vehicle but the following month was forced to issue a warning that it might not have enough cash to pay its bills.