Major electric bike maker came close to financial collapse at end of 2022
Only a couple years ago, electric bicycle manufacturers couldn’t keep e-bikes on the shelves as they were being snatched up faster than they could be produced. But while some e-bike companies have managed to keep up a steady cash flow and balanced operations, others have run into financial difficulties. For European e-bike maker VanMoof, those difficulties turned into a dire situation just a few months ago.
As reported by Dutch media company Financieele Dagblad, VanMoof nearly ran out of money to pay its bills late last year.
The company has since managed to raise sufficient funding from its original British and Chinese investors to make it out of the woods, but there were surely some sleepless nights for the management team at the end of 2022.
VanMoof’s annual report, filed at the end of last year, described the company’s immediate need to raise capital. Without a quick injection of funds, the company could not guarantee its “ability to continue its activities beyond the first quarter of 2023.”
The report revealed that VanMoof had asked its suppliers to defer payment until after additional capital had been raised. That’s a move that other large bike companies including Giant have been forced to make recently, according to Cycling Industry News.
VanMoof’s electric bicycles fall into an interesting niche among European e-bikes. The e-bikes, which range from around €2,500 to €3,000 in Europe, rely on more affordable hub motor drivetrains and thus undercut the higher-cost European e-bikes made by companies like Urban Arrow, Riese & Müller, Gazelle, and others.
Those lower prices along with sleek design and strong branding have helped VanMoof scoop up higher sales volumes.
But VanMoof maintains a massive workforce, reaching as many as 900 employees at one point. The company also operates brand stores in several countries across North America, Europe, and Asia.
Despite reporting tens of millions of euros in revenue each year, maintaining that large employee base and broad geographic footprint of brick-and-mortar stores hasn’t been cheap. Fortunately for VanMoof fans though, the company’s most recent 11th hour cash infusion from its existing investor base seems to have helped VanMoof return to steady footing for now.
Such economic hardships haven’t only affected e-bike companies like VanMoof. Other light EV companies have found themselves in similarly precarious financial standing. We recently reported on Oregon-based Arcimoto suspending production and laying off a large number of employees while it seeks to quickly raise enough funding to continue operations.
In that case, Arcimoto has been hampered by its much higher cost of production for highway-legal motorcycle-class electric three-wheelers that have so far failed to achieve the demand required to meet Arcimoto’s large-scale production goals.
Electrek’s Take
I can’t fathom how VanMoof can sustain such a large workforce. Companies like Rad Power Bikes sell considerably more e-bikes than VanMoof, and even Rad had to undergo several rounds of layoffs in the last year or so. I imagine VanMoof’s payroll must be a huge part of its burn rate, especially since you can’t put off paying employees the way you can with suppliers of brakes and pedals. And of course those e-bike hunters don’t work for free.
I’m glad to hear that the company found the money it needs to go on though, especially since I’m still waiting for them to get around to producing that VanMoof V concept e-bike that is supposed to reach 31 mph (50 km/h). No one can let VanMoof die until I get to ride that slick-looking thing.
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Germany’s largest offshore wind farm under construction, EnBW’s He Dreiht, just hit a big milestone: The first enormous turbine is now up in the North Sea.
He Dreiht – which means “it spins” in Low German – is using Vestas’s massive 15 megawatt (MW) turbines, the first project in the world to install them. Just one spin of one of the rotors can generate enough electricity to power four households for an entire day.
When it’s finished, He Dreiht will have 64 mega turbines cranking out 960 megawatts (MW) of clean power – enough to supply around 1.1 million homes. And it’s being built without any government subsidies.
EnBW, one of Germany’s major energy companies, has been working in offshore wind for more than 15 years, but He Dreiht is their biggest project yet. “It will play a key role in helping us to significantly grow our renewable energy output from 6.6 GW to over 10 GW by 2030,” said Michael Class, who heads up EnBW’s generation portfolio development.
The project is a win for Vestas, too. “With the installation of the first V236-15.0 MW, we have reached an important milestone for both the He Dreiht project and our offshore ramp-up, which helps Germany build a more secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system,” said Nils de Baar, president of Vestas Northern & Central Europe.
He Dreiht is located about 85 kilometers (53 miles) northwest of Borkum and 110 kilometers (68 miles) west of Helgoland. At peak times, more than 500 workers will be out at sea building the farm, using a fleet of more than 60 ships. EnBW’s offshore team in Hamburg is running the show.
The installation process is a major operation. The 64 foundations were already set in the seabed last year. Parts for the turbines are loaded onto the installation vessel Wind Orca in Esbjerg, Denmark, and shipped out in a 12-hour journey to the construction site. From there, the turbines are lifted into place. Meanwhile, crews are also working on internal wind farm cabling.
A partner consortium made up of Allianz Capital Partners, AIP, and Norges Bank Investment Management owns 49.9% of the shares in He Dreiht.
Read more: Trump admin halts $5 billion NY offshore wind project mid-build
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Tesla has released a quick update about its Tesla Semi factory in Nevada. It says that it is on track for volume production of the electric semi truck in 2026.
The Tesla Semi was first scheduled to go into production in 2019, but it has faced numerous delays.
Now, it appears that there is finally some momentum to bring it to volume production.
For the last two years, Tesla has been working to build a new factory next to Gigafactory Nevada, where it builds the battery packs and drive units for most of its electric vehicles built in North America.
Today, Tesla released a “progress update on the factory, confirming that it finished building and it’s now working on deploying the production lines:
Tesla had previously mentioned aiming for volume production by 2025, but it is now only talking about starting production toward the end of the year and ramping up next year.
The automaker reiterated its planned production capacity of 50,000 units.
We recently reported that an early Tesla Semi customer, Ryder, stated that the electric truck program is experiencing more delays and a price increase described as “dramatic.”
They now expect to take deliveries of their first trucks later in 2026 and said that the price has increased “dramatically,” leading them to scale back their pilot program from 42 to 18 Tesla Semi trucks.
When originally unveiling the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker mentioned prices of $150,000 for a 300-mile range truck and $180,000 for the 500-mile version. Tesla also took orders for a “Founder’s Series Semi” at $200,000.
However, Tesla didn’t update the prices when launching the “production version” of the truck in late 2022. Price increases have been speculated, but the company has never confirmed them.
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Vietnamese solar panel maker Boviet Solar just opened the doors to its first US factory — a huge new PV module plant in Greenville, North Carolina.
The company dropped $294 million into the state-of-the-art facility, which will pump out Boviet’s Gamma Series monofacial and Vega Series bifacial solar panels. They’re using advanced PERC and N-Type solar cell tech, which basically means these panels are built to deliver higher efficiency and better performance across residential, commercial, industrial, and utility-scale projects.
The Greenville factory’s first phase is now online with an annual PV module output capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW). For Phase 2, which is scheduled to come online in the second half of 2026, Boviet will invest another $100 million to add 600,000 square feet and ramp up to another 2 GW. It will make high-efficiency solar cells.
Once both phases are complete, Boviet’s campus will cover more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and R&D space. It’s one of the biggest clean energy manufacturing projects North Carolina has ever seen.
The jobs impact is significant, too. The first phase will create 460 skilled local jobs. Phase 2 is expected to add another 908, bringing the total to over 1,300 direct jobs, plus nearly 2,000 more indirect jobs across the region. That’s good news for Pitt County’s economy, real estate market, and workforce training programs.
“This facility is not just creating jobs, but creating opportunity, innovation, and a stronger foundation for eastern North Carolina,” said Senator Kandie Smith. Governor Josh Stein added that Boviet Solar’s move shows how North Carolina is leading the way in clean energy growth.
Read more: Thomas Built Buses debuts its next-gen electric school bus
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