Canoo, the Los Angeles based company creating electric vehicles made for membership, has officially opened its waitlist, dubbed The First Wave. The waitlist is for the company’s first vehicle, simply called the canoo, and is free to join and open to everyone.
Canoo’s membership will be flexible, with a single all-inclusive monthly payment that offers the vehicle, maintenance, registration, access to insurance and charging on a month-to-month basis.
“When we revealed our membership-only canoo vehicle back in September, we were overwhelmed with the positive response we got from consumers. Now we are excited to offer our community the opportunity to sign up to ride The First Wave with us,” said Ulrich Kranz, In Charge of Canoo. “As part of our all-inclusive, hassle-free and commitment-free car experience, people can join the waitlist in a matter of seconds with no obligation.”
Individuals who join The First Wave will have the opportunity to improve their position on the waitlist. Points are accumulated based on successful referrals to the waitlist as well as the completion of surveys. The person with the most points will be at the front of the line at launch. There is also an opportunity for those who join The First Wave to earn prizes like branded gear by achieving certain referral milestone levels.
“Canoo is disrupting one of the most traditional industries in the world so it should come as no surprise that we are doing things differently with the incentive program,” said Kranz. “The canoo is a bold and exciting vehicle, and today we extend those qualities throughout our entire user experience.”
Canoo unveiled its first membership-only electric vehicle on Sept. 24, 2019, just 19 months after the company’s founding in December 2017. Canoo’s first vehicle will launch in 2021 in Los Angeles and was designed for a world in which transportation is becoming increasingly electric, shared and autonomous. Canoo will offer a hassle-free and commitment-free EV membership for one monthly, affordable price and with no set end date.
Canoo has developed a proprietary “skateboard” architecture, directly housing the batteries and electric drivetrain. All of Canoo’s vehicles will share the same underpinning and different cabins or “top hats” can be married on top to create unique vehicles. Leveraging the same fixed and flat skateboard allows for reduced research and development costs, efficient production and a better use of interior space.
The vehicle and skateboard are designed for an overall five-star safety rating. The skateboard houses the most critical components of the vehicle with a strong emphasis on functional integration, the premise that all components should fulfill as many functions as possible. This helps reduce the total number of parts, skateboard size and weight.
Canoo is one of the first companies to integrate two commonly used technologies—advanced driver- assistance systems (ADAS) and Driver Monitoring—to enable the car to better protect the driver from roadside distractions.
The Canoo has an approximate range of 250 miles (EPA rating) and can reach an 80% charge in less than 30 minutes. The Canoo battery pack is fastened directly to the skateboard structure and avoids the redundant structure and space taken up by a separate battery enclosure. The battery provides torsional rigidity to the skateboard and to the overall vehicle. Since battery modules are directly mounted in the skateboard, the skateboard has more than one function as it also serves as the battery box.
