Canoo (GOEV) settles SEC investigation, explores new funding for EV rollout
EV startup Canoo (GOEV) released its fourth-quarter earnings Thursday as it enters a critical phase of development. After resolving the SEC investigation and agreeing to pay $1.5 million, Canoo says it has new opportunities to access funding.
Canoo resolves SEC dispute with $1.5M settlement
Since its foundation in Canoo 2017, the EV maker has had its fair share of highs and lows.
After going public in 2020, along with a slew of other electric vehicle startups (and SPACs in general), Canoo became one of the talked about stocks with significant growth potential in the EV segment.
However, the hype soon dissipated. In April 2021, the SEC opened an investigation into the company’s merger with special acquisition purpose company (SPAC), Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp (HCAC), to go public.
The scrutiny was part of a broader investigation that included several popular EV stocks such us Nikola (NKLA), Lordstown Motors (RIDE), and Faraday Future (FFIE).
The SEC informed the company that it believed, under its investigation, that certain former senior executives misled investors in late 2020 and early 2021 regarding revenue projections.
In March 2021, new leadership revised the projections to zero after eliminating engineering services as a potential revenue stream.
After a long-awaited battle, Canoo revealed during Thursday’s Q4 earnings release it had reached the conclusion of the SEC investigation, agreeing to pay a $1.5 million settlement.
With the investigation and other “legacy matters” behind it, Canoo says it’s ready to enter the next phase of its EV rollout.
Canoo Q4 highlights and business updates
Besides the SEC investigation, Canoo had several exciting developments in the quarter, including delivering its Light Tactical Vehicle (LTV) electric vehicle to the US Army.
In addition to existing clients, including Walmart, Zeeba, Kingbee, and recently Shindler Elevator, Canoo expanded its network to Saudi Arabia in a new distributor partnership with GCC Olayan.
Canoo still didn’t generate revenue in the quarter, ending Q4 with a net loss of $80.2 million for a loss of $487.7 million on the year.
The EV maker ended the quarter with cash and equivalents of $36.6 million. According to Canoo’s CFO Ken Magnet, the company is “exploring a number of diversified funding sources.” Magnet added now that the SEC investigation is concluded, the company can file for things like the Department of Energy’s loan program and “things of that nature.”
Canoo struggled to stay afloat last year, expressing significant doubt it would be able to continue operations after posting a net loss of over $125 million in the first quarter and another $164 million loss in Q2.
Looking ahead, Canoo expects operating expenses to be between $55 million to $70 million with CAPEX between $30 million to $45 million in the first quarter of 2023 as it enters the next stage of development.
As CEO Tony Aquila describes the next phase will be “more focused on milestones versus event-based or just-in-time” that will “lower the cost, make more efficicent use of capital and allow us to focus on long term success.”
Canoo says it will benefit from the IRA bill with domestic production. The company began phase 1 SOPin Mivchigan and kicked off phase 2 SOP at OKC, which includes an EV battery module manufacturing plant in Oklahoma.
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Solar panel giant Qcells announced today that it’s temporarily furloughing 1,000 US workers – 25% of its workforce – and reducing pay and shifts at its factories in northeast Georgia due to supply chain delays caused by US Customs.
Qcells furloughs 1,000 workers
The supply chain delays are hindering the company’s ability to import components to build its solar panels. This has resulted in Qcells’ two factories in Cartersville and Dalton being unable to operate at full capacity for several months.
Qcells spokeswoman Marta Stoepker shared the following statement in an exclusive with Channel 2 Action News in Atlanta:
The company says the furloughed workers, who were notified this afternoon, will retain full benefits and won’t be laid off. However, Qcells will no longer be using staffing agency employees in Georgia “at this time.”
As Qcells introduced new supply chains to support its growing solar panel manufacturing facilities in Georgia, the company was recently forced to scale back production while our shipments into the US were delayed in the customs clearance process.
Although our supply chain operations are beginning to normalize, today we shared with our employees that HR actions must be taken to improve operational efficiency until production capacity returns to normal levels.
Stoepker said it expects to bring the furloughed workers back “in the coming weeks and months.” She continued:
Our commitment to building the entire solar supply chain in the United States remains. We will soon be back on track with the full force of our Georgia team delivering American-made energy to communities around the country.
Electrek’s Take
In January 2023, the Seoul-headquartered Qcells announced it would invest more than $2.5 billion to build a solar supply chain in Georgia – the largest-ever investment in clean energy manufacturing in the US to date. That included expanding the Dalton solar factory and building a fully integrated solar supply chain factory in Cartersville, Georgia, that will manufacture solar ingots, wafers, cells, and finished panels.
It’s not quite there yet, because that takes time. In the meantime, it’s being penalized by Customs. The US government under Trump says it’s keen on boosting domestic manufacturing. Why would it work against a company that’s onshoring an entire solar supply chain, including recycling?
Dalton and Cartersville employ nearly 4,000 people. Its total output will reach 8.4 GW of solar production capacity per year, which is equivalent to nearly 46,000 panels per day – enough to power approximately 1.3 million homes annually.
It’s ludicrous that it has been forced to furlough a quarter of its workforce due to the ineptness of the Trump administration’s US Customs policies. This is right up there with the ICE arrests at Hyundai’s plant in Georgia. Bravo.
Read more: Georgia gives US solar panel manufacturing a big boost with a new factory
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The breakthrough EV batteries Toyota says will double driving range and cut charging times are facing another setback. The company is once again delaying plans for a new battery plant in Japan.
Why is Toyota delaying its EV battery plant this time?
Earlier this year, Toyota bought a 280,000-square-meter plot of land in Fukuoka, Japan, where it planned to build a plant to produce the more advanced EV batteries.
A location agreement was expected to be signed by April, but Toyota pushed back construction by several months, blaming slower-than-expected demand for electric vehicles.
The agreement was expected to be finalized this Fall, but that will no longer be the case. According to Nikkei, Toyota is delaying the EV battery plant for the second time. Toyota will review and adjust plans over the next year.
Fukuoka governor, Seitaro Hattori, confirmed the news with reporters on Friday following a meeting with Toyota’s president, Koji Sato. Hattori also shut down claims that Toyota was planning to scrap the battery plant altogether.
Toyota again blamed slowing EV demand for the delay. The decision comes despite Keiji Kaita, president of Toyota’s Carbon Neutral Advanced Engineering Development Center, confirming at the Japan Mobility Show just last week that it’s “sticking on the schedule” to introduce its first solid-state battery-powered EV by 2028.
Last month, Toyota said it aimed to “achieve the world’s first practical use of all-solid-state batteries in BEVs” after securing a partnership with Sumitomo Metal Mining Co. to mass-produce them. It’s also working with Japanese oil giant Idemitsu.
The company recently revealed a solid-state battery pack prototype that it claims can deliver 747 miles (1,200 km) range and 10-minute fast charging, but will we ever see it actually in production?
Electrek’s Take
Toyota has been making empty promises about EV batteries for almost a decade now. It initially planned to introduce solid-state EV batteries in 2020, then pushed it to 2023, then 2026, and now it’s saying it will be around 2028.
Mass production is likely closer to the end of the decade, if Toyota doesn’t delay it again. While it’s blaming the slowing demand, global EV sales are still on the rise. According to Rho Motion, global EV sales topped 2 million for the first time in a single month in September 2025. Through the first nine months of the year, EV sales are up 26% compared to the same period in 2024.
Even with the US ending the $7,500 federal tax credit and other policies designed to promote electric vehicles, global adoption will continue building momentum over the next few years.
Is it a demand issue, or is Toyota just looking for another excuse? With rivals like Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, BMW, and Honda advancing next-gen EV batteries, Toyota will only fall further behind if it continues delaying key projects.
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