OKLAHOMA CITY—Canoo plans to establish a second assembly plant here, joining a facility that’s set to open soon in Pryor, OK. It has acquired a 630,000-square-foot building that formerly housed a Terex construction equipment factory.

After it has been retrofitted, the facility will produce Canoo's LDV and LV vehicles starting late next year. The small electric vans are designed for last-mile small package and grocery delivery applications. The vehicles will be built on a multipurpose platform that integrates the motors, battery module and other components.

“The Oklahoma City facility has significant room for expansion and is a proven location for large-scale production, with an established transportation ecosystem, including rail," says Tony Aquila, chairman and CEO at Canoo. "We are working with our third-party manufacturing partners to achieve start of production on our own equipment this month. Following these initial builds, we will aggressively shift all our equipment into our new facility during the first half of 2023, with production ramp u in the second half of the year."

In addition to Canoo's Oklahoma City vehicle manufacturing facility, the start-up automaker recently announced that it plans to build a battery plant at its MegaMicro factory located on a 400-acre campus near Tulsa.

"We are accelerating our hiring plans in Pryor with the establishment of our battery module manufacturing facility, which will produce our proprietary batteries, energy management system and thermal control technology for our MPP platform," notes Aquila.

“The location has been strategically selected due to its proximity to our battery cell partner Panasonic,” adds Aquila. “In addition, we will be the first EV company to produce our battery modules with hydro power from the Grand River Dam Authority. We will work closely with and hire within the surrounding communities to create an EV ecosystem in the region."

According to Aquila, the facility will mass-produce proprietary battery modules on high-capacity assembly lines with state-of-the-art automated machinery. Canoo has refined and validated its battery module manufacturing over recent months and is awaiting delivery of machinery at the new facility.