Canoo Spent Twice As Much on CEO’s Jet As It Brought in Last Year

• Canoo spent $1.7 million on CEO Tony Aquila’s private jet bills, double its 2023 revenue.
• The electric vehicle maker lost $302 million last year, struggling in a sector facing slowing demand.
• Investors often scrutinize spending on private jets, especially when a company is in trouble.

Electric vehicle company Canoo spent twice as much on its CEO’s private jet trips as it did last year.

Canoo, which has never made a profit as a public company, paid $1.7 million in “airplane reimbursements” for its CEO last year. The company had revenue of $886,000, according to its annual earnings report filed Monday.

The CEO was “reimbursed for his business expenses, including air travel expenses, either for, at our discretion, a first-class airline ticket or for the business use of his private jet,” the CEO said. company in the file.

CEO Tony Aquila, who is also Canoo’s chairman, owns about 14% of the company, according to the filing Monday. Canoo spent $1.3 million on Aquila air travel in 2022.

Canoo, launched in 2017, makes passenger vehicles, delivery vans for Walmart and crew transport vehicles for NASA. The Texas-based company reported an annual loss of $302 million as it lost money while trying to increase production.

Canoo doesn’t have enough cash to get through next year without raising more money, and a wave of executives have resigned in 2022. After reporting results on Monday, its shares fell 26% on Tuesday.

The company did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment sent outside of normal business hours.

Investors often scrutinize companies’ spending on private jets, particularly when the business is struggling.

When office provider WeWork attempted to go public in 2019, it was criticized, among other governance issues, for purchasing a luxury plane used almost exclusively by Adam Neumann and his family. After Neumann left, the company sold the plane.

Former General Electric CEO Jack Immelt followed his private jet with a second plane for 16 years of overseas travel, something GE’s board of directors only became aware of in 2017.