EV Maker Canoo to List on Nasdaq Through Hennessy Capital Merger

San Francisco – August 19, 2020 – Cooley advised electric vehicle company Canoo on its agreement to combine with Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. IV, a special purpose acquisition company or SPAC, resulting in Canoo becoming a publicly listed company. The transaction will provide approximately $600 million of gross proceeds to support the production and launch of electric vehicles (EV) featuring Canoo's advanced skateboard technology. Partners Garth Osterman, David Peinsipp, Kristin VanderPas and Dave Young led the Cooley team advising Canoo.

Canoo has designed the world's flattest modular, all-electric “skateboard” platform that allows it to reimagine EV design, maximize usable interior space and support a wide range of vehicle applications. Canoo's skateboard architecture – a unique, self-contained, independently drivable rolling chassis – directly houses all of the most critical components of an EV. Canoo's consumer go-to-market strategy capitalizes on changing consumer preferences to deliver a month-to-month, commitment-free, subscription-based business model. 

"Today marks an important milestone of Canoo's effort to reinvent the development, production and go-to-market model of the electric vehicle industry,” Canoo co-founder and CEO Ulrich Kranz said in a news release. “Our technology allows for rapid and cost-effective vehicle development through the world's flattest skateboard architecture, and we believe our subscription model will transform the consumer ownership experience. We are excited to partner with Hennessy Capital and we are energized to begin our journey through a shared passion to deliver an environmentally friendly and versatile vehicle development platform to the market."

Upon closing of the transaction, the combined operating company will be named Canoo Inc. and will continue to be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol “CNOO.” Canoo expects to launch its first consumer model in 2022, simply named “the canoo” and available only by subscription, followed shortly after by a last-mile delivery vehicle and a sport vehicle, each built off of the same underlying skateboard platform.    

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