9. Operating Leases

On February 28, 2018, Legacy Canoo, via a wholly owned subsidiary, entered into a lease for an office facility in Torrance, California (“Torrance lease”) with an entity controlled by certain investors of Legacy Canoo, which was assigned to another entity controlled by certain investors of Legacy Canoo on April 30, 2018. The original lease term is 15 years and commenced on April 30, 2018. During the first quarter of 2021, the Company entered into a separate lease for an office facility in Justin, Texas (“Justin lease”) with an entity controlled by the Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. The original lease term is 5 years 3 months, commencing on January 1, 2021. Effective July 30, 2021, the Company amended its Justin lease to extend the leased square footage for the duration of the arrangement term. The Torrance and Justin leases (collectively referred to herein as the “leases”) contain a 3% per annum escalation clause.

In June 2021, the Torrance lease property was sold to a non-related party lessor. The change in lessor did not impact the terms and conditions of the Torrance lease. As such, payments made to the new landlord after June 2021 will not be considered as a related party lease expense.

​

The Torrance lease and Justin lease contain the option to extend the terms of the leases for two additional 60-month periods and one additional 60-month period, respectively, commencing when the prior term expires. At the  inception of each of the leases, it was not reasonably certain we would exercise any of the options to extend the term of the leases. There were no changes to that assessment as of September 30, 2021.

​

The Company has determined that the leases do not effectively transfer control of the underlying facilities to the Company based on the lease terms and, accordingly, the Company has classified the leases as operating leases. As such, the rent and property taxes are expensed on a straight-line basis in the condensed consolidated statements of operations.

Related party lease expense related to these leases was $0.1 million and $1.2 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021, respectively. Related party lease expense related to these operating leases was $0.4 million and $1.3 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2020, respectively.

The weighted average remaining lease term at September 30, 2021 and December 31, 2020 was 10.9 years and 12.3 years, respectively.

Maturities of the Company’s operating lease liabilities at September 30, 2021 were as follows (in thousands):

​