Canoo electric delivery van reveal coming next week – Roadshow [CNET]

Canoo has something new to show us. Following a quick look at the startup’s potential future vehicle portfolio in September, Canoo said on Monday it will reveal a multipurpose electric delivery vehicle on Dec. 17. Its debut will mark the second official vehicle in the company’s range, right after its bubble-like passenger van.

In the announcement video, Canoo focuses a lot on how its skateboard platform and steer-by-wire system let the company truly build whatever it thinks the market desires. We’ve already gone into the technical bits in the past, but essentially, Canoo can drop whatever kind of vehicle body it wants atop the platform, which houses everything needed to give the vehicle propulsion. In September, Canoo showed off a teaser photo of a pickup truck, a sporty car and a few different kinds of delivery vehicles. The photo above shows off a more traditional-looking delivery vehicle, but it’s not clear if this is exactly what we’ll see next week.

The company told Roadshow earlier this year it plans for a line of delivery vehicles that should start rolling out in 2023, or a year after its subscription-based van hits the streets of Los Angeles in 2022. The aforementioned sporty car is in the pipeline, but Canoo declined to put a date on its reveal or launch.

We really dig Canoo’s approach to the industry, but it definitely won’t be alone when it comes to the electric delivery vehicle sector. Rivian and Amazon have their own van coming much sooner, for example. And don’t count out traditional automakers like Ford and its E-Transit. Heck, Daimler may even start shipping over its electric Sprinter due to demand. Nevertheless, Canoo is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Canoo’s subscription-only EV isn’t as up a creek sans paddle as it might seem

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