NASA and USPS remove Canoo vans from their fleets

The electric vehicle startup Canoo, which generated so many expectations some time ago with its innovative vehicles, has seen two of its main customers, NASA and the United States Postal Service (USPS), stop using its electric vans. This decision was made despite the company’s commitment to maintain technical support after declaring bankruptcy.

Canoo delivered six units of its Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle (LDV 190) model to USPS in 2024 for operational testing. Likewise, in 2022 it signed an agreement with NASA to supply vehicles intended to transport astronauts to the launch pad for the Artemis missions to the Moon and Mars. A year later the US space agency received three of these customised models.

Following Canoo’s bankruptcy declaration in January 2025, the company’s former CEO, Tony Aquila, bought Canoo’s assets for just 4 million dollars. In the court proceedings, Aquila stated that his main motivation was to fulfil the service and maintenance commitments for key government programmes. However, there is no evidence that this support has materialised: neither NASA nor USPS have confirmed any contact with Aquila in this regard, and he has not responded to media questions on the matter.

Out of service

To date, both institutions have confirmed that they have stopped using Canoo’s vehicles. NASA has indicated that these no longer meet the requirements of its missions and, as an alternative, has rented the Astrovan, a conventional vehicle developed by Airstream for Boeing. For its part, USPS stated that the six units acquired for evaluation “are no longer in use”, that the testing process has concluded and that it does not plan further investment in this technology.

Canoo’s history began in 2017 under the name Evelozcity, initially led by German executives such as Ulrich Kranz, Stefan Krause and Karl-Thomas Neumann. Its original vision was to develop four urban electric models on a modular skateboard platform, to be sold exclusively by subscription. In 2020, Tony Aquila, a financial expert and major investor, joined during the SPAC stock market listing and took over as head in 2021. Under his leadership, the subscription model was dropped, alliances to manufacture vehicles of other brands on its platform were cancelled, and the company became known for its constant delivery delays, which ultimately led to its insolvency and bankruptcy.