EV company Canoo spent double its annual revenue on the CEO’s private jet in 2023

Some might argue the whole point Electric vehicle The industry aims to make the world a better place by reducing carbon emissions and fighting back Climate change. Which is what makes it so funny that electric vehicle startup Canoo apparently spent double its revenue last year on its CEO’s private jet.

Canoo’s latest full-year 2023 earnings report, released this week, shows the company spent $1.7 million to pay off Aquila Family Ventures, a company owned by Canoo CEO Tony Aquila, as first reported by TechCrunch Monday. The fees charged to the company relate to “reimbursement of aircraft costs,” as stated in the filings.

“Mr. Aquila, through an entity owned and controlled by Aquila Family Ventures, LLC (“AFV”), owns a personal aircraft acquired without our resources, which he uses for business travel. We reimburse Mr. Aquila for certain costs and third-party payments associated with the use of his personal aircraft for company-related business trips, excluding certain incidental fees and expenses.

Meanwhile, the company generated revenue of only $886,000 during the same year. Doing a little mental math, it appears that the company actually spent more on its CEO’s air travel expenses than it did on selling electric cars.

This news is both funny and sad, although it’s not unusual for companies to operate in the red for years and years. It took an Uber Until last year to make a profit.

However, there is a beautiful and terrible irony in the fact that the company is spending more money, and not selling world-saving vehicles. TechCrunch provides more details on Canoo’s significant expenses versus overall lack of revenue over the past few years:

The company generated revenue of $886,000 in 2023 compared to $0 in 2022, as the company delivered 22 vehicles to entities such as NASA and the state of Oklahoma. It cut its losses from operations by nearly half, from $506 million in 2022 to $267 million in 2023. The revenue-to-loss gap remains large: The company reported a total net loss of $302.6 million in 2023.

Gizmodo has reached out to Canoo for comment and will update this story if it responds.