Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle History

First shown in September 2019 simply as the 'Canoo' van, the vehicle was later renamed the Lifestyle Vehicle (LV). It rode on Canoo's 'multi-purpose platform' (MPP) — a flat skateboard chassis that packaged the 80 kWh battery, motor, and suspension into the floor, paired with a drive-by-wire (steer-by-wire) system that eliminated a mechanical steering column and freed up a flat, lounge-like cabin. The design, led by ex-BMW i3/i8 designer Richard Kim, won a Red Dot 'Best of the Best' award in 2020.

The LV was offered as a passenger minivan (base, Premium, and Adventure trims, roughly $34,750 to about $50,000) and as the Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle (LDV) cargo van. A dual-motor Light Tactical Vehicle (LTV) pickup version was delivered to the U.S. Army for evaluation in December 2022. The single rear motor produced about 200–350 hp with a quoted range near 250 miles (400 km) and a roughly 6.3-second 0–62 mph time.

Production was minimal and troubled. Canoo named NASA (crew-transport vehicles for the Artemis program), Walmart, and the U.S. Postal Service among its customers, and the first Oklahoma-bound vehicles were delivered to state agencies in late 2023 — though only a handful of units shipped in total, and a former employee later alleged those cars were actually built in Texas, not at Canoo's Pryor, Oklahoma plant. Production ended with the company's Chapter 7 bankruptcy in January 2025.