Dutch E-Bike Brand VanMoof Bought Out of Bankruptcy by Scooter Maker

VanMoof, the Dutch e-bike maker that gained a zealous following however declared chapter final month, has been acquired by Lavoie, an upscale electrical scooter firm, the corporations introduced on Thursday.

Riders of the costly and technologically superior VanMoof bikes have been left in limbo by the corporate’s chapter, as a result of the machines are constructed from proprietary components that solely the corporate made and most of the bikes’ features are linked to a smartphone app that runs on the corporate’s servers. Despite the excitement across the model, VanMoof had run into monetary issues that led to a manufacturing backlog and monthslong waits for gross sales and repairs.

But riders won’t be utterly out of limbo below the brand new possession. “What they can’t expect in the first couple of weeks is definitive answers to the problems,” mentioned Nick Fry, the chairman of McLaren Applied, the British motorsports expertise firm that owns Lavoie.

The value of the acquisition was not disclosed, however Mr. Fry mentioned Lavoie would spend “tens of millions” on the transaction in addition to in investments over the approaching months to “rectify some of the challenges we face.”

“This is not going to be a walk in the park,” he mentioned. “This is going to be a challenge.”

One of the brand new proprietor’s priorities, he added, was enhancing the supply of components and repairs, one thing that had grow to be more and more tough for VanMoof homeowners. Regular bike retailers couldn’t — or generally wouldn’t — repair the bikes.

Mr. Fry mentioned that he needed different bike mechanics to have the ability to repair VanMoof bikes and possibly make the bikes obtainable on the market in retailers apart from the retailers owned by the model.

Another precedence, Mr. Fry mentioned, was to deal with a number of the reliability points that plagued the bikes.

“It’s broken often,” Johan Alderden, a VanMoof proprietor from the Dutch city of Aalsmeer, mentioned this summer time after news of the chapter unfold. But echoing many different homeowners, Mr. Alderden mentioned that “if it’s working, it’s awesome.”

It is unclear what’s going to occur to individuals who had purchased and paid for VanMoof bikes however had not but obtained them by the point the corporate went bankrupt, Mr. Fry mentioned, including that it was “not something we could reach an agreement on with the previous owner.”

Lavoie lately began gross sales of a high-end electrical scooter, which prices greater than $2,000, based mostly on Formula 1 applied sciences developed by its dad or mum firm.

VanMoof, which was based in 2009 by two brothers, Ties and Taco Carlier, tripled its gross sales within the pandemic and had raised greater than $180 million in funding. The bikes’ design put the battery contained in the body, serving to shield it from rain and thieves, and giving VanMoof bikes their signature streamlined look.

As the e-bike market boomed, the corporate offered about 200,000 bikes for upward of $2,000 every, and opened shops throughout Europe, the United States and Japan. In the e-bike world, VanMoof was usually likened to Apple or Tesla, given its elegant designs, heavy use of customized supplies and premium costs.

“VanMoof and Lavoie fit together perfectly,” Eliott Wertheimer, Lavoie’s chief government, mentioned in a press release. (Lavoie has additionally been in comparison with Apple for its scooters’ glossy, high-tech engineering.) For VanMoof homeowners all over the world, Mr. Wertheimer mentioned that he needed to “keep those riders on the road.”