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If electric vehicles are the future, at least a portion of that future will soon be headquartered in Northwest Arkansas.
That’s the case as of this week when electric delivery vehicle maker Canoo announced plans to move its headquarters to the region with a new research and development center in Fayetteville, and an office headquarters in Bentonville.
The carmaker said it anticipates it will bring at least 545 high-paying jobs to Benton and Washington County with the move.
“We are proud to partner with the State of Arkansas to develop American-made clean energy vehicles,” said Canoo CEO Tony Aquila. “Our investment in these new facilities will accelerate the development of high-demand delivery vehicles for customers around the world. We thank Governor Hutchinson and his team for their leadership and vision for the state’s role in the mobility revolution.”
Photo: Courtesy, Canoo
The research and development center planned in Fayetteville will focus on “advances in vehicle electronics and powertrain,” officials said on Monday, and the Bentonville office will be the industrialization facility for the company.
“Canoo’s selection of Northwest Arkansas for its corporate headquarters, technology hub and development facilities is an excellent example of why our state has put so much effort and energy into computer science education and workforce training and development in recent years,” Governor Asa Hutchinson said. “As a leader in technology with a talent pool that prioritizes innovation, hard work, and entrepreneurship, Arkansas shares many of the values that Canoo embodies, making this partnership a natural fit.”
The company, publicly traded as GOEV on the Nasdaq, currently operates offices in California, Texas, Michigan, and Minnesota. Their focus is on delivery vehicles designed to maximize interior space that is customizable for different applications.
Earlier this year, the company announced plans to manufacture their vehicles nearby in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area. Software development, customer support, and financing operations will also be run out of Oklahoma.
The hope, they said, is to make the 412 corridor between Tulsa and NWA “a center of electric vehicle research, development, and manufacturing power.”
In addition to the multi-purpose delivery vehicles mentioned above, Canoo is also currently developing a “lifestyle vehicle” – characterized as a “loft on wheels” that it expects to launch in 2022, and a pickup truck that will be ready sometime in 2023. Other vehicles are also in the works.
The company plans to build up to 1,000 vehicles for both the U.S. and European markets next year, with a target of 25,000 vehicles in 2023.
Details on opening plans for the NWA headquarters and offices will be announced at a later date, officials said.
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