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Dutch e-bike maker VanMoof declared bankrupt
by Toby Sterling
July 18, 2023 5:09 PM EDT
AMSTERDAM, July 18 (Reuters) - Dutch e-bike maker VanMoof has been declared bankrupt and administrators are considering whether it can sell assets and restructure to save the business, the company said on Tuesday.
VanMoof, which raised 100 million euros ($112.56 million) to expand internationally as sales boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, filed for protection from creditors last week.
A company statement said that a judge at the Amsterdam District Court had declared the company’s Dutch operations bankrupt on July 17.
Two administrators named to oversee the company “are continuing to assess the situation at VanMoof”, including whether it can sell assets, reorganise and continue to operate.
VanMoof bikes feature a sleek, simplistic design with the battery built into the frame and have become common on the streets of Amsterdam, where the company was founded in 2009.
Dutch broadcaster NOS reported that the company, which sold bikes for more than 2,000 euros ($2,250) each, suffered from high costs to maintain and repair bikes while they were under warranty. About 200,000 have been sold worldwide.
Amsterdam police on Tuesday said their telephone lines were being flooded with customers complaining of “theft” because they paid for bikes that have not been delivered or because they have bikes being repaired at the company’s stores, which are now closed.
“The police cannot do anything for customers, regardless of how distressing this may be,” a police statement said.
“A bankruptcy is a civil dispute and not a criminal issue.”
The VanMoof statement noted that the company’s international subsidiaries are not part of the bankruptcy. The company declined to comment further.
NOS reported that brothers Taco and Ties Carlier, VanMoof’s founders, had thanked the company’s workers in an internal email sent to its 700 employees.
“We are sad, but above all we feel proud of what we accomplished,” the email was reported as saying.
($1 = 0.8890 euros)
Reporting by Toby Sterling Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman, Louise Heavens and David Goodman
Cautionary tale for us to only buy bicycles with standardised parts.
Feels on brand for lemmy lol. “Open source parts”
Standardized doesn’t mean open source. But you know maybe you’re right let’s throw out the SAE and CENELEC and the standards for all the other stuff we use and see how that goes.
Tell me this, when you buy tires for your bicycle, do you go to the bicycle manufacturer and get the tire for your bike model? Or do you go to any bike shop and tell them the size of the tire you need?
Standardised bike parts is nothing new. In fact, custom bike parts are the new phenomenon. Rims, spokes, bottom brackets, hubs, seat posts, seats, handle bars, forks, chains, chain rings, pedals, valves, tires, tubes and cables are all standardised. At least they were at one point before we allowed manufactures by voting with our pockets. The situation will continue to be worse if we stay complacent to whatever custom change Trek or whoever implements. Seat post broke? too bad, the one for your bike is 500 USD. And in the VanMoof case, do you want to unlock the bike? Too bad, because we are going bankrupt.
Yes I completely agree!
Also standardised and open-sourced are two completely different things. For example, a big brand might come out with a carbon fibre hub with a secretive curing process. As long as the dimensions are standard, it’s a standard part. Even though it’s NOT open source (secretive curing process in this example).
Not sure how to feel about this, on one hand there are ton of people without a job and customers who lost their bikes during repair.
On the other hand, VanMoof was like the BMW of the bicycle world, offer risen by inconsiderate arseholes.
I’ve always thought they were a neat idea, but at the same time, I don’t know anyone (myself included) who would want their bike beholden to over-the-air firmware updates and such. >.<
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I have to admit I don’t know a ton about the Vanmoof ebikes, but good ebikes in general cost at least $2000, so they weren’t really that far off. The difference between a rear hub motor rad power or something like that and a midmount motored trek or specialized is massive. I’m guessing Vanmoof was on that end of the spectrum.
I’m glad this range of choices exist because a wanker on a Vanmoof is better than a wanker in a Bimmer. I’m a little surprised by the hate here.
The only reason to hate on vanmoof is the proprietary stuff and lack of protection in case what is precisely happening now happened. But other than that like you said much better they’re on a vanmoof than in a BMW. Also since people being snarky about people being too lazy to pedal but electric bikes bring you much closer to a scooter to in terms of usability than a bike, so not sure what the beef is about there. I never owned one because they’d have been a luxury for me and not replacing other modes of transport but I think they’re neat.
Don’t be too harsh on those expensive bikes and their owners : i’d rather have rich entitled snob people riding overpriced E-bikes than driving SUVs
Not to mention those overpriced ebikes are still cheaper than a shitty or even moderate car. I spent $7k on my Stromer ebike, which at the time felt was high. But 25k miles of commuting later and counting, it’s already about half the cost of a car (using IRS reimbursement rate) and I’m still saving
I always thought their bikes were neat (going back way before they made e-bikes) but going to have to agree with another poster - I never met a single owner who wasn’t a self absorbed muppet.
VanMoof products have always been overpriced, bike shaped, design studies full of (unnecessarily) proprietary parts but the biggest problem has always been the low quality.
the company, which sold bikes for more than 2,000 euros ($2,250) each, suffered from high costs to maintain and repair bikes while they were under warranty.
Is just a diplomatic way of saying that they went bankrupt because of the bad quality of the bikes they produced. They had so many bikes returned by customers because of defects and deficiencies that the warranty repairs/replacements simply ate up their profit from selling the bikes.
Definitely not a loss for the bicycle world. I´m just sorry for all their customers, especially the ones with that integrated lock that can only be opened with the VanMoof app that ofc relies on VanMoof servers …
Amsterdam police on Tuesday said their telephone lines were being flooded with customers complaining of “theft” because they paid for bikes that have not been delivered or because they have bikes being repaired at the company’s stores, which are now closed.
“The police cannot do anything for customers, regardless of how distressing this may be,” a police statement said.
I do wonder about the people whose bikes are being held hostage at closed repair shops.
Really glad I never bought one of these now. Cool bikes but it would suck to not have support if needed.
Good riddance to rubbish.
…Huh. I had expected something completely different when it said “high-end bicycle” in the title. Not something that’s not really a bicycle per se. I’d been thinking more along the lines of Storck.
I feel like electric “bicycles” are fundamentally missing the point of a bicycle.
As long as they get cars off the street, i’m fine with them. 1 electric SUV battery holds enough material to build about 100 electric bicycle batteries. A lot of people don’t want to pedal 15 km every morning to go to work, but are okay with doing it effortlessly on an e-bike. I used to have the elitist mindset and look down on them, but e-bikes are so much better than cars in every way !
I agree with both of you. I do not like ebikes and I don’t are myself riding one maybe until I’m older, but I do prefer a douche on an ebike than a douche on an SUV
I feel like electric “bicycles” are fundamentally missing the point of a bicycle.
I think the point of a bicycle varies from person to person. 🙂
