Oklahoma governor offers record $15M to electric car maker Canoo

Oklahoma City — Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt is planning to award a state-record $15 million to electric vehicle manufacturer Canoo to help support the company's planned investment of more than $560 million in new facilities in Oklahoma, the Tulsa World reported.

The newspaper reviewed contracts from the Oklahoma Department of Commerce that show the state money from the governor's Quick Action Closing Fund will back Canoo's commitment to provide 1,500 jobs at a factory in Pryor, Oklahoma, and 700 jobs at two facilities in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

Canoo is also planning to build facilities in neighboring northwest Arkansas, including a headquarters in Bentonville and a research and development facility in Fayetteville.

Canoo announced during a Monday earnings call that Oklahoma has finalized an agreement to purchase 1,000 vehicles from the company, the newspaper reported.

Created in 2011, the closing fund is intended as a source of funds available to the governor to attract high-impact businesses. The $15 million commitment is five times the previous record of $3 million that was dispersed twice, once in 2013 to General Electric for a research center and again in 2015 to Commercial Metals Co. for a mill in Durant.

Closing fund contracts for the Pryor factory ($10 million) and Tulsa and Oklahoma centers ($5 million) contain various payment conditions centering on construction and jobs progress and capital expenditures by the company.