Canoo completes US Army order for light tactical vehicle

In July of this year the US Army announced it awarded Canoo with a contract to produce a Light Tactical Vehicle – a multipurpose pickup truck that can do it all. The Canoo was given a price target of $67,500 and went to work on the car.

Fast forward few months and Canoo just announced the truck is ready. The company has unveiled the results of its few months of hard work today and released some information and literally just one official photo of the vehicle.

An LTV is a modular vehicle that can be changed in a matter of minutes from a flatbed truck to a cargo vehicle, it can handle ramps and storage boxes, it can have tents fitted to it or even tactical gear. All of that has to be possible with a minimum of tools and without an engineering team – just soldiers in the middle of nowhere.

Canoo delivered what it claims to be an ideal LTV. With up to 600 hp and AWD, raised air-spring suspension and sitting on 32-inch all-terrain tires the truck sure looks the part. What we cannot see is its carbon and kevlar construction that improves the safety of soldiers and protects the most vulnerable component of the truck – its battery.

The truck’s cargo area has a standard size designed to carry sheets of plywood and storage containers. There is a proprietary mounting system for added accessories, boxes, ramps, tents and whatever else the US Army may require.

The next step is the evaluation and if the truck passes it, there’s a chance the company will get a lucrative supply contract. Before that happens though, the US Army will literally try to break it to pieces, it will be put through a series of field tests that only a few vehicles ever managed to survive.

To get an idea of what size of an order could follow if the Canoo is successful, we only need to look at the JLTV, referred to as the Oshkosh L-ATV which is replacing the Humvee. This is a combat vehicle and the US Army ordered 19,000 of it last year. With Canoo expected to fulfil the lighter duties – mostly transport – it will be destined to replace the ageing fleet of 80,000 tactical vehicles. Then there are thousands of Light Utility Vehicles which Canoo could be suitable to replace. It all hinges now on the assessment results.

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