Canoo is an electric vehicle manufacturer based in California (EV). What makes the company extra special is as they have adapted a sustainable buy-or-lease vehicle ownership model. By leveraging the power of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform they want to change people's views on how we think about, drive, pay and acquire vehicles.
“We don’t want to be just another electric car company that produces a car and sells it through dealerships; that’s not the business model of the future,” says Stefan Krause, co-founder and chairman of the Advisory Board at Canoo and continues:
“Many people don’t want to be bothered by having to register a car, maintain a car, sell a used car. They want to make a monthly payment and have all their transportation needs covered – and we’re creating a car that enables this.”
Krause realized the need for electrical cars as a subscription model when he saw that cars were parked 90% of the time, and that more and more cars taxing a road infrastructure that without routing optimization, wasn’t used efficiently. At the same time electrical cars as a way to impact emission concerns. Together with the former BMW executive, Ulrich Kranz, and a team of visionaries, they formed Canoo.
Collaboration through 3DEXPERIENCE
To achieve their goals of reaching the market with their vehicles by 2021, they have invested in the cloud-based 3DEXPERIENCE platform. The platform that connects all valuable SOLIDWORKS apps to the cloud, will be used globally for the company’s digital design and engineering.
“We’ve used 3DEXPERIENCE on the cloud ever since we started up in a garage [in 2017]. With our time-to-market goals, we didn’t have six months to get back-end computers to work. The cloud-based system has been fantastic, and it’s worked seamlessly for us through multiple moves and expansions. You put your computer on the table and you’re immediately able to collaborate efficiently around the world.”
Making innovations possible
The company’s vehicle has a base that reminds you of a skateboard that holds the battery and electric drivetrain. On top of that is the cabin, which can hold seven people, that has a lot of open space and doesn’t really look like the traditional car with its unique silhouette.
“We are breaking free of that three-box design, to have open space on top of the skateboard,” said Alexi Charbonneau, who is in charge of skateboard and cabin of Canoo vehicles. “We have a ‘loft’ on wheels that we can customize as the user wants.”
Global collaboration on cloud
Today, Canoo supports more than 150 users worldwide on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. And the company will add more along the road. According to Matt Sommer, in charge of methods, working in cloud means that they no longer need to manage servers or infrastructure. This means more time to focus on product development.
“We can have collaborative design, where our internal users model and change designs, and then our vendors and contractors can see those alterations in real time. We don’t have to manage a file system or where people store their data. They save it into the cloud and people can see it immediately”, says Sommer.
To be able to connect all people in one place solves Canoo’s problem to quickly combine diverse design and engineering displaces from experts all over the world. This is a benefit that makes it possible to get their products to market faster, since no time is spend on exchanging files with suppliers. All are in one digital environment, working together.
Revolutionize how people see vehicles
Canoo want, leveraging the power of 3DEXPERIENCE, to revolutionize how we think about, drive, pay and acquire vehicles.
“If you create innovation, you need your digital platform to work. In the end, I can really say that Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform is a super good platform to create these types of innovations that we are working on”, says Stefan Krause.