The SONDORS Metacycle electric motorcycle, once the darling of the burgeoning commuter e-motorcycle market, has suffered repeated setbacks since its original launch. Deliveries slowed to a trickle earlier this year and by many accounts appear to have since ceased. Reservation holders, some who have been waiting for years, have been left in the dark.
Speculation has run rampant regarding SONDORS’s current precarious financial situation. With the brand seemingly entering radio silence, we’re now getting more details than ever before from an unlikely source. One of the company’s factories in China tells Electrek that the California-based e-bike and e-moto company has stopped paying its bills, abandoning thousands of partially and fully-assembled motorcycles in the factory’s storage warehouses.
The story actually starts a few years ago when the SONDORS Metacycle electric motorcycle shocked the industry during its unveiling in 2021. With just a $5,000 price tag, the company’s founder and CEO Storm Sondors promised the motorcycle would reach highway speeds and offer 80 miles (130 km) of range. SONDORS is well known as an early player in the budget electric bicycle category, and so the industry had high hopes for the brand’s first electric motorcycle.
The Metacycle project overran its timeline by nearly a year but eventually started delivering dozens followed by hundreds of motorcycles in late 2022. The completed motorcycles didn’t quite live up to their promised specifications, though many riders still praised the light electric motorcycle as a handy commuter.
Deliveries never truly picked up steam the way the company promised. It is unclear how many Metacycles have been delivered to customers, though SONDORS’s China-based factory tells Electrek that “nearly 2,000 Metacycles” were imported to the US.
Against the backdrop of unclear delivery figures, online forums are bursting with reservation holders claiming they still haven’t received their bikes. Most have waited many months, with some having waited for years. Still others have received refunds, though lately many riders have been more successful with credit card chargebacks as SONDORS appears to have stopped responding to requests for refunds.
The first SONDORS Metacycle delivered to the public in August 2022
To make matters worse, the trickle of deliveries appears to have ended earlier this year even as SONDORS continued to sell the bike, bringing in more revenue without any additional Metacycles reaching the US. As of today, the Metacycle is still currently available for order on SONDORS’s website.
But as Electrek has learned, production for the motorcycle ended a year ago.
According to the factory in China that was hired to produce the motorcycle on contract for SONDORS, the Metacycle assembly line has been mothballed due to what the factory claims are several breaches of contract by SONDORS and nonpayment for produced and delivered motorcycles.
The factory’s representative agreed to speak to me on condition of anonymity, providing internal documents from the factory and photographs of the Metacycle’s inventory, components, and the stalled production area.
Completed and packaged SONDORS Metacycles, untouched for nearly a year in a Chinese factory
According to the factory, there are currently around 500 completed Metacycle electric motorcycles that have spent nearly a year sitting on the factory floor. Many of them are already packaged for shipment, while hundreds more sit in rows waiting to be crated.
In addition to the completed motorcycles, the factory says it has enough components stacked up on site to manufacturer another 1,500 completed Metacycles. Some components number much higher than 1,500 and most have been piling up for over a year.
But those bikes and components haven’t just been gathering dust. The factory added that they have been consistently maintaining the bikes at their own expense even while SONDORS has stopped making payments.
The rows of complicated cast aluminum frames and the mountains of components have been left untouched for so long because SONDORS hasn’t paid its bills for over a year, the factory representative explained.
Rows of completed SONDORS Metacycle electric motorcycles in a Chinese factory
“In June 2020, Mr. Sondors, [the] boss of SONDORS Inc. approached us to find a producer for Metacycle, an electric motorcycle concept he designed. At the time, the journey from concept to product was long, with many technical issues unresolved. We devoted our resources to this project, eventually establishing a production system for Metacycle and turning his concept into reality. In November 2021, he gave us the first purchase order (“PO”) for 2,000 [units] of motorcycles, but the balance is not paid fully till now.”
The factory representative laid out the rest of the timeline, explaining that “in May 2022, Mr. Sondors discussed an order of 8,000 units.” Due to price fluctuations of parts and components, the factory says that he made a smaller purchase order for 2,000 units in June 2022 and made a prepayment at that time, agreeing that the balance would be paid before delivery. “Later, he requested an increase in production to 7,000 units per month. Trusting him, we prepared parts for more than 2,000 motorcycles, hired over 20 additional staff, and invested big money to build a new automatic production line.”
In a letter provided by the factory to Electrek, SONDORS is accused of being in breach of contract after first pressuring the factory to ship more Metacycle motorcycles before receiving the outstanding payments, then pushing the factory to lower the price of the Metacycles after they had been produced, effectively attempting to renegotiate the contract.
“From September 2022, Mr. Sondors began delaying his payments, requesting delivery of motorcycles before his payments. Considering our working relationship, we sent him three containers of 120 motorcycles, for which he has yet to clear the payment until now,” explained the factory. In October 2022, the factory representative said that they “stopped all production due to the risks he posed to our business.”
The factory went on to detail how after the production and delivery of more Metacycles ended, Mr. Sondors visited China in March 2023 and “made unreasonable demands to reduce unit cost regarding all the delivered and undelivered motorcycles or threatened to replace us with another manufacturer. We believe he was attempting to transfer his risk to us and lower his costs by reducing the purchase price. We refused these demands as they were essentially requests to alter the existing contract. Since March 2023, our relationship with him has deteriorated due to his failure to honor our agreement and his unreasonable demands.”
According to the factory, they have discovered that their experience with the company is not unique, adding that “several other suppliers (e-bike suppliers) have had similar encounters with Mr. Sondors.”
Around that time in March 2023, Electrek hosted Storm Sondors for an interview on our Wheel-E Podcast where he put on a positive face for the company and claimed almost 2,000 Metacycles had been delivered. While we weren’t aware of the extent of these SONDORS production woes at the time, we likely should have pushed him harder at the time on specific issues and complaints regarding slow deliveries.
But the saga didn’t end there. “Since May 2023, Mr. Sondors has been pressuring us to agree on prepayment deliveries,” explained the factory representative. “His attempts to harass us in China and defame us to our suppliers have been relentless.”
The factory claims that since July of this year, Mr. Sondors has “erroneously claimed that no contracts existed between SONDORS Inc. and us and demanded a return of the prepayment.” The factory indicates that it has since sent three formal letters clarifying the existence of their contracts and the ways SONDORS has breached those contracts.
Electrek also received a copy of a “Letter of Censure and Warning” from a major electric bicycle industry association in the Chinese city where SONDORS contract manufacturing occurs. The local industry association, which represents many large electric bicycle factories in the area, made several claims against SONDORS.
The association indicated that SONDORS “failed to comply with contracts, made false promises, defamed enterprises in the electric vehicle industry and their senior management personnel, spread false information within the electric vehicle industry, and instigated unnecessary lawsuits between enterprises in the electric vehicle industry.”
Multiple requests for comment were sent to Storm Sondors, but no response was received by the time of publishing.
Boxes of Metacycle components have stacked up in the factory for more than a year
All of this comes during a period of extreme uncertainty for the company. SONDORS canceled an attempt at an IPO earlier this year and appears to have lost many of its employees as more clues to financial issues have stacked up. However, no official statement has come from the company regarding the fate of the Metacycle project.
Recently a verified now-former Sonders employee posted in a Sondors Facebook group to let everyone know his situation. The post was deleted soon after.
The claims of a deteriorated relationship between SONDORS and the Metacycle factory, as well as the reported financial distress of the company, seem to imply dim prospects for the company.
However, SONDORS has a history of bouncing back from major problems, and it is not inconceivable that the company could pull one more rabbit out of its motorcycle helmet with a major cash infusion or by selling the company.
Enbridge is going big on solar again in Texas, and Meta is snapping up all the solar power it can get.
Last month, Electrek reported that the Canadian oil and gas pipeline giant just launched its first solar farm in Texas. Now it’s given the green light to Clear Fork, a 600 megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar farm already under construction near San Antonio. The project is expected to come online in summer 2027.
Once it’s up and running, every bit of Clear Fork’s electricity will go to Meta Platforms under a long-term contract. Meta will use the solar power to help run its energy-hungry data centers entirely on clean energy.
The solar farm project’s cost is around $900 million. Enbridge says it expects Clear Fork to boost the company’s cash flow and earnings starting in 2027.
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Enbridge EVP Matthew Akman said the project reflects “growing demand for renewable power across North America from blue-chip companies involved in technology and data center operations.”
Meta’s head of global energy, Urvi Parekh, added that the company is “thrilled to partner with Enbridge to bring new renewable energy to Texas and help support our operations with 100% clean energy.”
Meta’s first multi-gigawatt data center, Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026.
Clear Fork is part of a growing trend: tech giants like Meta, Amazon, and Google are racing to lock down renewable energy contracts as they expand their fleets of AI-ready data centers, which use massive amounts of electricity.
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A fully electric Japanese electric pickup truck? It’s not a Toyota or Honda, but Isuzu’s new electric pickup packs a punch. The D-MAX EV can tow over 7,770 lbs (3,500 kg), plow through nearly 24″ (600 mm) of water, and it even has a dedicated Terrain Mode for extreme off-roading. However, it comes at a cost.
Meet Isuzu’s first electric pickup: The D-MAX EV
After announcing that it had begun building left-hand drive D-MAX EV models at the end of April, Isuzu said that it would start shipping them to Europe in the third quarter.
By the end of the year, Isuzu will begin production of right-hand drive models for the UK. Sales will follow in early 2026.
Isuzu announced prices this week, boasting the D-MAX EV features the same “no compromise durability” of the current diesel version.
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The D-MAX EV pickup features a full-time 4WD system, a towing capacity of up to 3.5 tons (7,700 lbs), and an added Terrain Mode, which Isuzu says is designed for “extreme off-road capability.” With 210 mm (8.3″) of ground clearance, Isuzu’s electric pickup can wade through up to 600 mm (24″) of water.
Powered by a 66.9 kWh battery, Isuzu’s electric pickup offers a WLTP range of 163 miles. With charging speeds of up to 50 kW, the D-MAX EV can recharge from 20% to 80% in about an hour.
The electric version is nearly identical to the current diesel-powered D-Max, both inside and out, but prices will be significantly higher.
Isuzu D-Max EV specs and prices
Drive System
Full-time 4×4
Battery Type
Lithium-ion
Battery Capacity
66.9 kWh
WLTP driving range
163 miles
Max Output
130 kW (174 hp)
Max Torque
325 Nm
Max Speed
Over 130 km/h (+80 mph)
Max Payload
1,000 kg (+2,200 lbs)
Max Towing Capacity
3.5t (+7,700 lbs)
Ground Clearance
210 mm
Wading Depth
600 mm
Starting Price (*Ex. VAT)
£59,995 ($81,000)
Isuzu D-Max EV electric pickup prices and specs
Isuzu’s electric pickup will be priced from £59,995 ($81,000), not including VAT. The double cab variant starts at £60,995 ($82,500). In comparison, the diesel model starts at £36,755 ($50,000).
The EV pickup will launch in extended and double cab variants with two premium trims: the eDL40 and V-Cross. Pre-sales will begin later this year with the first UK arrivals scheduled for February 2026. Customer deliveries are set to follow in March.
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In this photo illustration, Claude AI logo is seen on a smartphone and Anthropic logo on a pc screen. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
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OpenAI and Anthropic continue to lead a fundraising bonanza in artificial intelligence, raising historic rounds and stratospheric valuations.
But when it comes to finding AI exits for venture firms, the market looks a lot different.
AI startups raised $104.3 billion in the U.S. in the first half of this year, nearly matching the $104.4 billion total for 2024, according to PitchBook. Almost two-thirds of all U.S. venture funding went to AI, up from 49% last year, PitchBook said.
The biggest deals follow a familiar theme. OpenAI raised a record $40 billion in March in a round led by SoftBank. Meta poured $14.3 billion into Scale AI in June as part of a way to hire away CEO Alexandr Wang and a few other top staffers. OpenAI rival Anthropic raised $3.5 billion, while Safe Superintelligence, a nascent startup started by OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, raised $2 billion.
While Meta’s massive investment into Scale AI amounted to a lucrative exit of sorts for early investors, the overarching trend has been a lot more money going in than coming out.
In the first half, there were 281 VC-backed exits totaling $36 billion, according to PitchBook. That includes the roughly $700 million acquisition of EvolutionIQ, an AI platform for disability and injury claims management, by CCC Intelligent Solutions, and the public listing of Slide Insurance, which builds AI-powered insurance offerings for homeowners. Slide is valued at about $2.3 billion.
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“The dominant exit trend right now is frequent but lower-value acquisitions and fewer IPOs with significantly higher value,” said Dimitri Zabelin, PitchBook’s senior research analyst for AI and cybersecurity.
CoreWeave’s IPO, which took place at the very end of the first quarter, was the exception on the infrastructure side. The stock shot up 340% in the second quarter, and the company is now valued at over $63 billion.
Zabelin said the pattern of more investments in applications with smaller deals has been in place for the past year.
“Vertical solutions tend to plug more easily into existing enterprise gaps,” Zabelin said.
The acquisitions wave is being driven, in part, by what Zabelin calls bolt-on deals where larger companies buy smaller startups to enhance their own future valuations, hoping to enhance their value ahead of a future sale or IPO.
“That also has to do with the current liquidity conditions in the macro environment,” Zabelin said.
Outside of AI, activity is slow. U.S. fintech funding dropped 42% in the first half of the year to $10.5 billion, according to Tracxn. Cloud software and crypto have also seen sharp pullbacks.
Zabelin said IPO activity could pick up if economic conditions improve and if interest rates come down. Investors clearly want opportunities to back promising AI companies, he said.
“The appetite for AI, specifically vertical applications, will continue to remain robust,” Zabelin said.
— CNBC’s Kevin Schmidt contributed to this report.