Anyone with a VanMoof ebike is likely concerned after the Dutch company confirmed that it is in financial trouble.
One of those concerns is that an app is required to use many of the smart features of its bikes – and that app relies on communication with VanMoof servers. If the company goes under, and the servers go offline, that could leave ebike owners unable to even unlock their bikes …
VanMoof ebikes
eBikes are extremely popular in the Netherlands, where bicycles are an everyday form of transport for the majority of the urban population. While most ebikes have historically tended to look rather clunky, VanMoof made its name through beautiful-looking bikes that you’d never guess were electric.
Site owner Seth had mixed views when he tried it in hilly territory, but I was impressed when I tested one in the much flatter territory of central London to try out the Find My integration. I especially loved the clean looks, in part made possible by offloading controls to an app.
The VanMoof S3 scores top marks for design. As a fan of minimalism, to me it’s an absolutely gorgeous bike! It has incredibly clean lines, with most of the cable runs hidden; front and rear lights embedded into the top tube; the battery cells hidden inside the frame; no gear lever; a discreet embedded display; and charging socket & power button hidden on the underside of the top tube.
Financial difficulties
The first sign of trouble came those who had placed orders for VanMoof bikes reported delivery delays. This was followed by the company “pausing” new orders. That clearly pointed to serious financial difficulties – as no company wants to stop taking in cash unless it has no choice – and the company confirmed this a few days later.
The company has now sought legal protection using a Dutch mechanism similar to America’s Chapter 11. This allows the company to pause bill payments while it takes time to seek a solution, likely in the form of additional outside investment.
The app problem
VanMoof bikes are sold not just on their design, but on their tech features. A companion app is used for everything from tracking the bike in Apple’s Find My app through changing gear profiles to unlocking the bike.
While unlocking is activated by Bluetooth when your phone comes into range of the bike, it relies on a rolling key code – and that function in turn relies on access to a VanMoof server. If the company goes bust, then no server, no key code generation, no unlock.
Rival ebike company Cowboy has a solution
A rival ebike company, Belgian company Cowboy, has stepped in to offer a solution. TNW reports that it has created an app which allows VanMoof owners to generate and save their own digital key, which can be used in place of one created by a VanMoof server.
If you have a VanMoof bike, grab the app now, as it requires an initial connection to the VanMoof server to fetch your current keycode. If the server goes offline, existing Bikey App users can continue to unlock their bikes, but it will no longer be possible for new users to activate it.
This is a bigger issue than VanMoof
But while that the problem may be solved for VanMoof bike owners, this is a bigger issue. We’re all used to buying expensive pieces of hardware which require companion apps, either to access the full feature set, or to use them at all.
This is the norm with smart home devices. If they are HomeKit-compatible, you may be able to set them up directly in Apple’s Home app, but it’s often the case that you need to use the manufacturer’s own app to access all of the features and settings.
Smart speakers commonly require use of a companion app to do things like EQ adjustments, or linking multiple speakers.
Many mirrorless cameras need apps for things like remote control, uploading LUTs, and updating firmware.
Most health and fitness gadgets require an app – from fitness bands through smart scales to Peloton bikes.
In some cases, a companion app may work perfectly well in standalone mode, but it’s surprising how often a server connection is required to access the full feature set.
What’s the solution?
Perhaps we need standards here. For example, requiring all functionality (bar firmware updates) to work without access to an external server.
Where this isn’t technically possible, perhaps there should be a legal requirement for essential software to be automatically open-sourced in the event of bankruptcy, so that there would be the option of techier owners banding together to host and maintain the server-side code?
While I know some US readers roll their eyes whenever the EU is mentioned, this does strike me as a problem that the European Union is perfectly positioned to solve, laying down the necessary consumer protection legislation to mandate this type of solution.
What are your own thoughts? Do we need legislation for this, or are you happy to take your chances? Please take our poll, and share your thoughts in the comments.
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Exclusive: Here’s one of the best prices to date on EcoFlow’s mid-range DELTA 3 Plus portable power station at $535
We have secured an exclusive discount on the EcoFlow DELTA 3 Plus 1024Wh LiFePO4 Portable Power Station today for 9to5toys readers. Coming courtesy of the folks at Wellbots, using code 9TO5D3P at checkout will drop your total down to $534.65 shipped. Regularly listed at $799 directly from EcoFlow where it is currently marked down to $598, today’s deal delivers up to $264 in savings and the lowest price we can find.
For further comparison, this model is currently being sold for $699 on the EcoFlow Amazon storefront where the previous few deals had it sitting down at $616. We are also looking at a price drop that undercuts our previous exclusive discount from back in early February that had this model sitting down at $541.
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EcoFlow’s DELTA 3 Plus first landed on Amazon back in September 2024 to deliver a mid-range portable power supply ready to handle both emergency situations and the modest off-grid setup you might have planned for this summer.
Carrying a 1,024Wh LiFePO4, it features an 1800W AC output, 2200W (surge 3600W) with X-Boost alongside five methods of recharging (AC, Solar, 800W Alternator Charger, Smart Generator 3000 (Dual Fuel), Multicharging) and as many years of coverage on the included 5-year warranty.
For me these power stations have always been as much about peace of mind as they are useful on the campsite. Just knowing I’ve come some serious battery power at the ready just in case of the worse at home is equally as valuable to me as the portable power action, and more than worth the price of entry. With this in mind, this model in particular sits right in that sweet spot for me – enough to handle some tech out in the wild and more than enough to me through power outages and the like.
Amazon takes Hoverfly’s foldable H3 e-bike with up to 28-mile range down as low as $423 (Reg. $529)
Over at Amazon you can now find the Hoverfly H3 16-inch Folding Electric Bike in blue down at $423.20 shipped. You can also score the black colorway for $424.99. Typically priced at $529, you’re looking at as much as $106 off. This is a return to the price we saw late last month and comes within $23 of the all-time low we tracked back in January. It’s not hard to spend well over $1,000 or an electric bike, so this is an affordable way to take one for a spin this year. You can learn more about this model down below.
Folks who have been itching to pick up an e-bike, but cannot justify a premium model that’s often accompanied by a high price can now pick up Hoverfly H3 for a much more affordable cost. The brand touts that it “can travel 15.5 miles on pure electric” and nearly double that when switching to a pedal-assisted mode which ratchets that up “to more than 28 miles.” Speeds top out at 15.5 MPH and the 280.8Wh battery is removeable, allowing you to easily swap it out with a second battery if you want to go even further. My favorite feature here is that not only is the e-bike more compact than most, but that it also can be folded when not in use.
Today only: Grab Anker’s SOLIX C300 AC 90,000mAh LiFePO4 power station at $198 (Reg. $250)
As a part of its Deals of the Day sale, Best Buy is offering Anker’s SOLIX C300 AC 90,000mAh power station for $198 shipped. This is regularly a $250 power station which is now seeing a straight up $51 discount. We’ve seen this model fetch as low as $179 during Black Friday last year with our exclusive promotional discount, but it hasn’t been that low in quite a while. Today’s deal lands it within $9 of our previous mention from earlier this year, and it’s now fetching $2 less than Anker’s discounted price.
Anker’s SOLIX C300 packs a hefty 90,000mAh LiFePO4 battery, delivering up to 600W of peak power (300W continuous), making it great for charging multiple devices and powering small appliances. Unlike the DC version that’s more USB-focused, the AC model featured here has three AC outlets, three USB-C ports, one USB-A port, and a 120W car/aux port. You can recharge the C300 in multiple ways – plug it into a wall to hit 80% under in under an hour, connect up to 100W of solar panels, charge via your car, or you can even use the PD 3.1 USB-C input. For added convenience, it includes a built-in carrying handle and a light bar above the display.
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Kia announced pricing for the upcoming 2025 EV6, with lots of improvements from a mid-cycle refresh and only a slight price bump from the previous model.
The 2025 Kia EV6 has been a long time coming… and unfortunately it’s still “coming,” but at least today we’re seeing one more step towards its imminence, and the news is honestly pretty good.
To recap some of the details of the refresh of Kia’s popular electric model, this year’s EV6 is getting a few interior and exterior design changes, a quieter interior, much better vehicle-to-load capability (12kW, up from 1.8kW), a ~10% bump in battery capacity for both the smaller and larger battery options, and support for over-the-air vehicle software updates. The EV6 GT trim gains some more horsepower, but other models stay the same.
The new EV6 also comes with a native NACS port, making it one of the first non-Tesla vehicles to have this feature. It joins its cousin vehicle, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 with which it shares the E-GMP platform, as some of the only cars on the road with a native NACS port (the Ioniq 5 recently charged faster than a Tesla on the same Supercharger), after the Ioniq 5 also got a big refresh this year.
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The native NACS port is also accompanied by a relocation of the EV6’s charge port (on all but the GT model) – from the right side of the car to the left, to better mirror Tesla’s charge port location and make it easier to fit into Superchargers (while we wait for Tesla to add longer cables).
So, with all these changes, alongside stupid government actions aimed at increasing inflation for Americans, we’d perhaps expect a price bump… and it turns out we got a relatively small price bump, of just a few hundred dollars on the low-end specs, though rising to a $2,200 increase on the top-end GT spec (the only one with a horsepower boost).
Here’s the new pricing, compared to the old pricing:
Pricing – MSRP1 (excludes $1,475 destination)
Old price
New price
EV6 Light
$42,600
$42,900
EV6 Light Long Range RWD
$45,950
$46,200
EV6 Light Long Range AWD
$49,850
$50,300
EV6 Wind
$48,700
$50,300
EV6 GT-Line
$52,900
$54,200
EV6 Wind AWD
$52,600
$54,300
EV6 GT-Line AWD
$57,600
$58,900
EV6 GT
$61,600
$63,800
Perhaps one reason Kia was able to avoid larger inevitable price increases that are coming to many products for Americans as a result of boneheaded tariff announcements is because the 2025 EV6 will be built in Kia’s facility in Georgia (except for the top-end GT trim).
Kia says the models are in production now, but we’re still waiting on them getting delivered to customers. Usually vehicles come out a little bit before their model year starts (so 2025 cars will ship in the last few months of 2024), but the 2025 EV6 has taken its sweet time coming out. We suspect the NACS transition has had something to do with this (there has, after all, been a lot of back and forth about Kia Supercharger compatibility…), but Kia is tight-lipped about the reasons for such.
This move suggests that we finally might not have much longer to wait, though, so start getting ready and maybe call your local dealer if you want to get in line for the new EV6 (and hopefully get it before some bonehead tries to raise its price more or gets rid of tax credits because his oil bosses said so).
If you’d like, you can use our affiliate link to get in touch with your local dealers about the Kia EV6, and try to be one of the first in line to get the newest iteration of one of the better EVs on the road.
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Tesla is being squeezed out of the Chinese market, and the pressure is currently falling on the sales workers, who are reportedly being pushed to their limits.
Over the last few years, Chinese automakers have stepped up their game significantly, and they are now not only competitive at the lower end of the market with affordable electric vehicles. They are also starting to put pressure on higher-end automakers, like Tesla.
China is the world’s biggest EV market by a significant margin, and it has been a critical part of Tesla’s growth phase from 2020 to 2023.
But now Tesla is facing incredible competition from the likes of BYD, Xiaomi, NIO, Li Auto, and others.
Tesla has been hoping that its updated Model Y would help it stay comptivie in the Chinese market, but there are now reports to the contrary
The automaker has already been offering subsidized 0% financing to try to boost Model Y and Model 3 sales in the country.
Now, a new report on China’s Jiemian News based on interviews with current and former Tesla salespeople in China claims Tesla is now pushing for its Chinese sales staff to work 13 hours a day every day (translated from Chinese):
As the group that deals with the most front-line consumers, Tesla sales have in fact clearly felt the strong pressure to close deals. Many Tesla sales told Jiemian News that due to the inability to meet assessment targets on time, they have given up their two-day weekend off and switched to working seven days a week, “working from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, with an average daily working time of nearly 13 hours.”
The report claims that Tesla has instructed sales staff to aim for selling a car every day, but they are having trouble achieving half that rate:
According to the Tesla salesperson, the store assessment standard in Beijing is to sell at least one car per day, which means that they need to sell about 30 cars per month. But in reality, it is difficult for many salespeople in the store to sell 3 to 4 cars per week. They need to keep following up with customers and try their best to persuade them in order to get as close to the target as possible.
To sell a car per day, Tesla sales staff are told to create 10 user profiles, complete three online test drive invitations, and complete four test drives every day.
According to the report, the higher requirements also come with limited pay – resulting in record turnover at some of Tesla’s stores in China.
They used a Tesla store in Beijing as an example, where they claim they can do a full sales staff turnover in just a month and a half.
One Tesla salesperson told Jiemian that it is now way more difficult to sell Tesla vehicles in China:
“The days when we didn’t have to introduce products to users and orders were ‘automatically’ delivered to their doorsteps are gone forever.”
Tesla was also a victim of its own success in the country, where its vehicles have become somewhat familiar in the last few years, and the brand is no longer perceived as premium as it was in 2022-2023.
Electrek’s Take
Tesla was having problems in China before Trump’s election, but the problems appear to be getting worse.
Since last year, Tesla has already basically not been making any money on the Chinese market since it primarily sells lower-end RWD Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, which are already low-margin products, and Tesla has to subsidize them with 0% financing on top of it.
That’s in large part due to competition.
Unlike in North America and Europe, Tesla hasn’t been suffering from brand issues due to Elon Musk’s involvement in politics in China, but it might be changing now.
Trump’s escalating trade war with China is reaching new heights, deterring Chinese consumers from purchasing American brands.
I think Tesla was already being squeezed out of the Chinese market due to competition, but the trade war is likely to accelerate this process.
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