Canoo has been hit by two supplier lawsuits with the last remaining co-founders

EV startup Canoo has been hit with two new lawsuits from suppliers linked to the drivetrains that power its electric vehicles, just weeks after the company began a major restructuring that included the departure of its chief technology officer.

Canoo also parted ways with senior director of advanced automotive engineering Christoph Kuttner, who was the last remaining co-founder from the team of nine that created the startup in late 2017, TechCrunch has learned.

Kuttner was one of nine founders who split from Faraday Future at the end of 2017 to start Evelozcity, the early incarnation of Canoo. Those co-founders have gradually exited the company before, during, and after its transition from a private startup to a publicly traded company in late 2020 when it merged with a special-purpose acquisition company.

Kuttner and Canoo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The supplier lawsuits, both filed in September in Oakland County Circuit Court in Michigan, come at a time when Canoo is moving away from its original California headquarters and focusing more on its operations in Texas and Oklahoma, and while courting potential customers in the UK and the Middle East. It does all this on a tight budget. The company reported just over $19 million in cash, of which $4.5 million was unrestricted, as of June 30, 2024.

The two companies suing Canoo are Jing-Jin Electric North America and Dana Limited. Canoo has tapped Jing-Jin, or JJE, to design and build electric motors for EV launch vehicles. JJE claims Canoo failed to pay for the engines and owes more than $1.4 million as of August 2023. The supplier says Canoo did not dispute the money owed and “tied JJE for months — repeatedly promising to pay JJE, blaming its delays.” problems and things completely unrelated to JJE. “

In November 2023, according to the complaint, JJE and Canoo entered into a settlement agreement to settle matters. JJE says Canoo made its first three payments, totaling $851,013, and an additional payment of $120,649.23. But JJE says the payments soon stopped, even though Canoo owes another $446,692.77. JJE has suspended all Canoo operations in June 2024 and says the EV startup has stopped responding.

Meanwhile, Dana Limited, says it has entered into an agreement with Canoo in February 2022 to design and develop a drive assembly for Canoo’s vehicles. Dana Limited says that as part of the agreement, Canoo had to compensate the supplier for any costs incurred if production of the EV launch vehicles was delayed by more than three months.

“Canoo’s production and work under the Agreement have been significantly delayed,” Dana Limited wrote in the complaint. The supplier now says Canoo has failed to make two $4.3 million cost recovery payments despite sending “several notices” of EV launches in late 2023 and 2024.