The retro-futuristic racer look is awesome—white-knuckled driving in a racing seat strapped to a tiny roll bar with only a steering wheel and pedals to compliment it. Underneath the driver sits the vehicle’s two electric motors which provide instantaneous torque to all four wheels. Canoo says the platform itself is capable of 500 rear-biased horsepower and 300 miles of range, and as Price demonstrates, that translates into a hell of a lot of fun when unleashed.
“I was blown away by how fun it was to drive,” said Price after piloting the so-called skatekart. “The overall performance was impressive. The skateboard felt powerful, with smooth and dynamic handling, especially during high-speed cornering. The drive-by-wire steering was something new for me and it felt like it was built for the track.”
Sadly Price’s experience will be unique and you shouldn’t expect a Canoo-branded race car any time soon. The idea here is to showcase that Canoo’s offerings can be as modular as possible thanks to the skateboard design. Since there are no mechanical links between the car’s steering or power modulations, the vehicle controls can be moved and mounted anywhere on the platform. To prove its point, the startup literally mounted the vehicle controls to the chassis and sent it.