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 had 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’ capabilities are linked to a smartphone app that runs on the corporate’s servers. Regardless of 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.
However riders won’t be utterly out of limbo below the brand new possession. “What they’ll’t anticipate within the first couple of weeks is definitive solutions to the issues,” mentioned Nick Fry, the chairman of McLaren Utilized, the British motorsports know-how firm that owns Lavoie.
The value of the acquisition was not disclosed, however Mr. Fry mentioned Lavoie would spend “tens of tens of millions” on the transaction in addition to in investments over the approaching months to “rectify a number of the challenges we face.”
“This isn’t going to be a stroll within the park,” he mentioned. “That is going to be a problem.”
One of many new proprietor’s priorities, he added, was bettering the supply of components and repairs, one thing that had turn into more and more troublesome for VanMoof house owners. Common bike retailers couldn’t — or typically wouldn’t — repair the bikes.
Mr. Fry mentioned that he wished different bike mechanics to have the ability to repair VanMoof bikes and perhaps make the bikes accessible on the market in retailers apart from the retailers owned by the model.
One other precedence, Mr. Fry mentioned, was to deal with a number of the reliability points that plagued the bikes.
“It’s damaged usually,” Johan Alderden, a VanMoof proprietor from the Dutch city of Aalsmeer, mentioned this summer season after information of the chapter unfold. However echoing many different house owners, Mr. Alderden mentioned that “if it’s working, it’s superior.”
It’s unclear what is 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 one thing we may attain an settlement on with the earlier proprietor.”
Lavoie just lately began gross sales of a high-end electrical scooter, which prices greater than $2,000, based mostly on Components 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 defend it from rain and thieves, and giving VanMoof bikes their signature streamlined look.
Because the e-bike market boomed, the corporate offered about 200,000 bikes for upward of $2,000 every, and opened shops throughout Europe, america and Japan. Within 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 match collectively completely,” 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 house owners world wide, Mr. Wertheimer mentioned that he wished to “maintain these riders on the highway.”
