Walmart Is Buying 4500 Electric Vehicles From OK’s EV Maker

Oklahoma's electric vehicle manufacturer Canoo may have been against the ropes a few weeks ago with a dim outlook on the future of the company, but the automaker caught a massive financial break with a huge order of vehicles from Walmart.

A little backstory on how the retail giant tends to operate. Walmart has a simple philosophy when it comes to new technology. If it costs $XXX to hire a company that can offer a turnkey new technology, then they could probably hire their own people to do the same for a smaller amount of money while keeping the tech in-house.

If you were wondering how Walmart fell so far behind competitors like Target and Amazon when it came to internet commerce and online shopping, this is why. Instead of paying a huge company to handle the massive undertaking of building and managing their app, they pinched pennies to do it within their own company, which probably lost them dollars in the long run, but that's the "Do It Yourself" attitude the company practices.

When Walmart uncharacteristically accepted independent contractors to manage their grocery delivery responsibilities, they were sort of forced into it by the emergency time crunch that was the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. That's the downside to being the world's largest retailer, the inability to be so fluid in taking quick action.

For the most part, grocery delivery has been a huge success for Walmart and consumers alike. It's also been a solid side-hustle for people looking to subsidize their income in their free time, but this is the first step the company is taking to bring that service in-house, but it won't affect all locations yet.

In the press release, Walmart states that 3800 of their stores are within ten miles of 90% of the American population. Bringing a delivery fleet on board will either reduce the cost of grocery delivery or allow Walmart to keep those fees as a cherry on top of every order. As Walmart+ continues to grow in popularity, odds are it'll be a mix of both as Oklahoma's second-largest employer continues its fight to compete with Amazon.

Since Amazon recently partnered with Rivian for the same reason, Walmart is keeping up with Jeff Bezos on this front. As Walmart and Canoo are both headquartered just blocks from each other in Bentonville, Arkansas, it's only natural they struck up a solid win-win partnership that will net both more money in the long run.

The first order is for 4500 of Canoo's Lifestyle Delivery Vehicle... the complex-yet-simple, ugly-yet-somehow mildly attractive efficient electric cargo platform, branded to the hilt with Walmart's unique and simple design.

The move couldn't have come at a better time for Oklahoma's automaker. In May the company announced they may not make it through summer without a sizeable investment, and this order represents an estimated $150+million infusion.

This is not only great news for Canoo, it's great news for Oklahoma. The state has already invested +/-$300million in the automaker, this should push it all the way to manufacturing and the jobs that come with it.

Canoo is also still accepting deposits on their other passenger vehicle models if you're so interested. Odds are these Oklahoma original EV's will be some of the most affordable on the market.