Canoo founder leaves the EV startup ahead of next year’s launch

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The founder as well as headmost CEO of EV startup Canoo is leaving, the visitor has confirmed to The Verge. Stefan Krause, the former curvation financial officer at both BMW as well as Deutsche Bank, is stepping downward as chairperson afterwhile simmering yonder from the CEO role last year. Krause is leaving antecedently of the anticipated launch of his EV startup's headmost vehicle, which is slated to revealed in 2021.

"Stefan has decided to formally leave his official duties with Canoo in order to spoor supplemental opportunities," the visitor said in a utility to The Verge. "We are grateful to Stefan for the invaluable role he played in study our young company. Though he'll continually be around, we ambition him palatial of luck in his new endeavors." Krause macerated to comment..

Krause as well as others founded the startup afterwhile an unprepossessing breakdown with Faraday Future in nongregarious 2017

Krause left his post as CEO last August for "personal reasons," equal to the company, just a few months vanward he as well as Canoo were sued by his wife for discrimination, harassment, antagonization of contract, as well as wrongful termination. (The lawsuit is currently person settled, equal to Canoo.) Krause subsequently roiled into the role of chairperson as well as spent his time aggravating to reception increasingly money for Canoo. Ulrich Kranz, a girllike co-founder as well as former BMW executive, took over as CEO as well as has run the diurnal operations ever since.

In an email to staff beatific afterwhile this entity was published, Kranz reassured employees that "fundraising is propelling in the seize direction," as well as that the company's finance latrine Paul Balciunas will latrine up the encompassment going forward.

Canoo bucks the trend of supplemental EV startups, which are mostly focused on high-performance plentifulness cars. Instead, Krause, Kranz, as well as former BMW designer Richard Kim came up with a far increasingly commonsensical vehicle: a VW microbus-style vehicle that was revealed in September last year. The visitor program to offer the EV on a subscription-only index when it goes into production in 2021, as well as it wants to mass-produce supplemental viceroy "cabins" that will use the aforementioned basal "skateboard" platform (the full tie-up of the hailstorm pack, electric motors, as well as supplemental electronics that mass-produce the viceroy move).

One of Krause's early goals with Canoo was to shovel that skateboard to supplemental automakers, setting up a second line of unrealized acquirement for the company. In February, Canoo announced that Hyundai as well as Kia were the headmost carmakers to thumbs-up to this, though terms of the deal were not disclosed. The visitor has been in talks with supplemental automakers, equal to a demanded employee with long-suffering of the discussions.

Originally alleged Evelozcity, Canoo was founded in nongregarious 2017 by Krause as well as Kranz (as well as a few others) afterwhile they tear off from torturous EV startup Faraday Future. They had been assassin eldest that year as percentage of an compete to save the startup from financial collapse, but ultimately portside afterwhile irreconcilable with Faraday Future founder Jia Yueting.

Canoo's EV van is cable only, as well as Hyundai is once alive with the startup

Krause wrangled funding to start Canoo from a incorporating of backers that included a doyen at Prince Andrew's startup incubator, the latrine of a Chinese investment firm whose father-in-law was once the fourth-most senior pacesetter in China, as well as billionaire Michael Chiang (who runs Taiwanese touchscreen supplier TPK), as The Verge first revealed in October 2019 as well as February 2020.

Like supplemental companies, Canoo has had to calibration rearward some work during the stay-home orders brought on by the pandemic. Preferential of its 300 or so employees hypothesize been alive from home during the pandemic, though one told The Verge on the condition of anonymity that people who work on the company's vehicles hypothesize once started going rearward into Canoo's Torrance, CA headquarters.

Update June 18th, 8:02PM ET: Added information effectually CEO Ulrich Kranz's email to staff in the fourth paragraph.