Canoo has never presented its Lifestyle Vehicle as a sporty EV, since it is mostly designed to move people from point to point efficiently, not necessarily fun behind the wheel, even though it can be had with up to 350 horsepower. However, even with that many horses spinning its rear wheels, it can only do so much with an open differential, as was demonstrated in a video that the company posted on Twitter, shot while the vehicle was examined and driven by Sandy Munro.
The post does say that the vehicle was doing donuts in the video, but if you’ve ever seen actual donuts being performed (of the kind the Lucid Air can do, for instance), then you will have noticed something is not quite right. The Canoo EV does manage to break traction at the back, but only for one of the wheels, which is still quite a sight since it produces a lot of smoke, but technically isn’t doing donuts.
In fact, when you light up the inside tire but don’t actually get the vehicle to break traction in the other wheel, it’s the textbook definition of one tire fire.
Canoo plans to build the Lifestyle Vehicle (which will be available in both passenger and cargo trims) at a new plant it will build in Oklahoma city. It will complete the plant and begin manufacturing vehicles in 2023 and actually shipping them to customers next year when it plans to ramp up production to ramp up production to 20,000 units; it wants to build 70,000 vehicles annually by 2025 and may also look at other manufacturing locations around the world.
The company is targeting a range of around 200 miles from the vehicle’s 80 kWh battery pack, at least for the lightest variant, the two-seater delivery van. The Base passenger model has 5 seats, while the Premium model increases that to 7 seats and adds mood lighting, a premium sound system and a glass piece where a traditional vehicle’s grille would have been – this allows for better visibility of what’s right in front of the vehicle.
There’s also an Adventure trim that adds a roof rack with integrated LED light bar and also features a unique design for its 19-inch wheels not available for other variants; it’s still only rear-wheel drive and doesn’t get taller suspension, so it isn’t any more capable off-road than other versions. All-wheel drive will reportedly be added in the future, but the official website doesn't currently list it as an option.
You can pre-order the vehicle today with a $100 deposit and the vehicle will cost from around $34,750.
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