Chapter Slams the Brakes on Dutch E-Bike Producer VanMoof

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Dutch bicycle maker VanMoof has been declared bankrupt, slamming the brakes on an organization that received design awards for its trendy, minimalist electrical bikes however struggled to satisfy hovering demand and repair glitches with the app powering its service.

The Amsterdam-based firm, began in 2009 by brothers Taco and Ties Carlier, posted a statement on its web site informing shoppers that an Amsterdam court docket declared VanMoof bankrupt on Monday.

The corporate headquarters in Amsterdam was closed Tuesday. One man parked his VanMoof outdoors the constructing to take an image of the bike with the corporate emblem within the background.

It stays unclear how the Dutch chapter will have an effect on the corporate’s overseas operations. VanMoof sells its bikes on-line and has model shops in additional than 20 cities worldwide, together with New York, San Francisco, Paris and Tokyo, in response to its web site.

The corporate has bought about 200,000 bikes. It promised to make its bikes nearly theft-proof, via using digital locking, built-in alarms and GPS monitoring: if a VanMoof was stolen, the corporate would monitor it down inside two weeks or substitute it.

“We’re nonetheless exploring and understanding the affect of the chapter of the Dutch entities on the opposite authorized entities, our intention is to maintain these entities operating as normal,” the corporate stated in its assertion. “If now we have any information on this matter, it is going to be shared.”

The corporate noticed demand for its bikes soar through the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in delays in deliveries. The corporate makes use of lots of its personal elements to make bikes, that means that standard bicycle shops and repairers which might be a function in almost each Dutch city and village cannot simply repair them in the event that they break down.

VanMoof bikes depend on a proprietary smartphone app for various capabilities, together with the primary technique of unlocking with a digital “key”. Though it is nonetheless attainable to unlock the bikes manually, with out the app, house owners face extreme restrictions on what they will do.

Nonetheless, the chapter is probably not the top of the street for a corporation that turned a conventional Dutch technique of transport into a way of life assertion world wide.

“The trustees are presently establishing a gross sales course of for the property and actions of VanMoof, with the intention to discover a get together who’s keen to proceed the actions of VanMoof,” the corporate stated.

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