Focus

Walmart Purchasing 4,500 Canoo Electric Delivery Vehicles

September 22, 2022

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Summary:

Walmart bought 4,500 Canoo Electric vehicles with the opportunity to up that number to 10,000 vehicles. This is just one of three electric vehicle purchases they have made to use for delivery services in order to help get to zero emissions by 2040. The Walmart-Canoo vehicles aren’t in full force on the roads until 2023 but have started test running in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.

The Canoo vehicle’s features are listed, which you can also find in the featured video made by the makers themselves and can be found through this link on Youtube: https://youtu.be/IRY9p9qHKgA.

These vehicles will be used to deliver anything in the store starting with groceries to clothing to cleaning products and the like with the opportunity to be used for Walmart GoLocal, or delivery-as-service business.

Walmart’s stores and fulfillment centers will use more than just these Canoo vehicles for delivery as they already utilize Walmart workers, independent contractors through the Spark Driver Network, other delivery service partners like Instacart, autonomous vehicles, and drones. With stores and fulfillment centers within 10 miles of 90% of the US population, these various delivery options allow for them to reach 80% of the US population so far.

Analysis:

Walmart will have their own workers to drive these vehicles which has the opportunity to take precedent over the use of the Spark Driver Network as well as other third-party delivery drivers. These Canoo vehicles are just another addition to their delivery fleet. This furthers the idea that grocery stores do not intend to get rid of their pickup and delivery services, or see its popularity dwindle among customers. Big companies like Walmart have the money and power to show how these services can expand over time.

These Canoo vehicles bring insight to the future of electric vehicles, fully configurable vehicles, and vehicles used for businesses. I don’t just say delivery vehicles here as these Canoo vehicles have the configurability to allow use as its own storefront, food truck, etc. Even once the model and buyer configuration is fleshed out, the driver can further configure the vehicle by adjusting things like the shelving units, seat, and steering wheel adjustment quite considerably.