In 2023, Canoo spent twice its annual revenue on its CEO’s private jet

There’s a nugget in Canoo’s 2023 earnings report regarding the usage of CEO Tony Aquila’s private jet – just one among many expenses that illustrates the difference between expenses and revenues in an electrical vehicle startup.

Canoo reported its fourth-quarter and full-year 2023 earnings on Monday regulatory filings shows how the corporate is saving money because it tries to scale up production of economic electric vehicles and avoid the identical fate as other electric vehicle startups just like the recently bankrupted Arrival. The regulatory proposal once more features a going concern warning – which stays in place from 2022 – in addition to some progress on expenses and revenues.

The company generated revenue of $886,000 in 2023 in comparison with zero dollars in 2022 because it delivered 22 vehicles to entities akin to NASA and the state of Oklahoma. Indeed, it reduced operating losses by almost half, from $506 million in 2022 to $267 million in 2023. However, the gap between revenues and losses continues to be significant: in 2023, the corporate reported total net losses of $302.6 million.

But you simply need to take a look at how much Canoo pays to rent the CEO’s private jet to place these “winnings” into perspective. Under the agreement signed in November 2020, Canoo reimburses Aquila Family Ventures, an entity owned by the CEO, for the prices of using the aircraft. In 2023, Canoo spent $1.7 million on this reimbursement – twice the revenue generated. Canoo paid Aquila Family Ventures $1.3 million in 2022 and $1.8 million in 2021 to be used of the aircraft.

The documents show Canoo also paid Aquila Family Ventures $1.7 million in 2023, $1.1 million in 2022 and $500,000 in 2021 to support shared services at its Justin office in Texas.

This could possibly be attributed to low costs if Canoo achieves its 2024 revenue forecast of $50-100 million.

We’ve reached out to Canoo for comment and can update this post if we hear back.