Inside Canoo's 2023 earnings report is a nugget related to the use of CEO Tony Aquila's private jet — just one of many expenses that Shows the gap between spending and revenue when starting electric vehicles.
Canoo on Monday posted its fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 earnings in a regulatory filing that shows the company burning deep into cash as it tries to ramp up production volumes for its commercial electric vehicles and avoid the same fate faced by other electric vehicle startups, as the recently bankrupt Arrival did. The regulatory filing once again contained a “continuity” warning – which has continued since 2022 – as well as some progress on expenditure and revenue.
The company generated revenue of $886,000 in 2023 compared to $0 in 2022, as the company delivered 22 vehicles to entities such as NASA and the state of Oklahoma. It cut its losses from operations by nearly half, from $506 million in 2022 to $267 million in 2023. The gap between revenue and losses remains large: the company reported a total net loss of $302.6 million in 2023.
However, one need only look at what Canoo pays to charter the CEO's private jet to put these “gains” into perspective. Under an agreement reached in November 2020, Canoo is compensating Aquila Family Ventures, an entity owned by the CEO, for the use of an aircraft. In 2023, Canoo spent $1.7 million on this reimbursement, twice the amount of revenue it generated. Canoo paid Aquila Family Ventures $1.3 million in 2022 and $1.8 million in 2021 for use of the plane.
Separately, Canoo also paid Aquila Family Ventures $1.7 million in 2023, $1.1 million in 2022 and $500,000 in 2021 for shared services support at the company's office facility in Justin, Texas, according to regulatory filings.
This could be attributed to small cash potatoes if Canoo reaches its 2024 revenue forecast of $50 million to $100 million.
We've asked Canoo for comment and will update this post if we hear back.
