EV startup Canoo this week introduced supply of autos for NASA, and enlargement of a battery-development mission with the U.S. Division of Protection (DoD), however gave no updates the manufacturing of buyer autos.

The three Canoo EVs delivered to NASA’s Kennedy Area Middle in Florida, dubbed Crew Transportation Automobiles (CTVs), shall be used to move astronauts to the launch pads for Artemis missions, in line with a Canoo press launch. The Artemis program goals to carry people again to the Moon for the primary time since 1972.

Wanting unchanged on the skin from Canoo’s Way of life Automobile, the CTVs can carry totally suited astronauts, flight assist crew, and associated tools, in line with Canoo. Vary anxiousness will not be a priority, because the journey to the launch pad is simply 9 miles.

Canoo Crew Transportation Automobile for NASA Artemis program

Canoo additionally introduced earlier within the week an enlargement of a beforehand introduced partnership with the DoD. Following testing of Canoo’s battery tech by the DoD’s Protection Innovation Unit (DIU), Canoo stated it had delivered “a technologically superior battery pack” for army purposes, a separate launch stated, that can “set the stage for standardization of power dense lithium batteries for the U.S. Navy.”

Though no additional element was revealed in regards to the army pack, Canoo’s battery for its potential civilian fashions is a structural pack, containing cells and modules, revamped beneath Pete Savagian, former GM EV1 chief engineer, who’s now now not with Canoo. The startup introduced again in 2021 that the Way of life Automobile and others will get Panasonic cylindrical cells.

Canoo plans to construct its autos in Arkansas first, then Oklahoma, with no plans for the abroad contract manufacturing it initially thought of. Battery modules shall be manufactured in Oklahoma, at a facility powered primarily by wind and hydro sources from the Grand River Dam Authority within the state, the startup says.

Canoo structural battery pack

These aren’t the primary authorities tasks from the agency. It final yr delivered a prototype Mild Tactical Automobile (LTV) to the U.S. Military.

Walmart positioned an order for 4,500 Canoo electrical vans in 2022, and at the moment it seemed just like the tempo of reaching manufacturing and scaling up would possibly speed up. Since then, nonetheless, the startup seems to be working with optimism. In its final quarterly replace, Canoo instructed it nonetheless would possibly exit 2023 with a 20,000-vehicle run fee—though financials seem skinny.

Lengthy gone is the personal-use subscription plan Canoo initially deliberate the enterprise round.