Electric Scooter Hopeful Vectrix Shuts Down, Appears Headed for Bankruptcy
While everybody and his brother (if Honda, Yamaha, BMW and Piaggio count) prepares to launch a new wave of electric scooters, one of the original players, Rhode Island-based Vectrix
, is preparing to bow out.
A victim of the "good idea a little too soon" syndrome, Vectrix has told most of its employees adios and says the remaining staff is beginning "the process of preparing for a bankruptcy filing..."
The company has closed down its website, but in a press release apparently prepared for the European media and downloaded from the site before the site was shut down (and posted by Autoblog Green) company president Michael Boyle says that Vectrix would file for bankruptcy if an effort to find a solution for its cash-flow and debt woes can't be found. That effort, he wrote, would include "the sale of the company."
Vectrix blames its woes on the economic crunch that has dried up credit and made people leery of buying big ticket items.
The company was formed with the goal of providing a full-sized "maxi" scooter for commuters and other daily riders who wanted reliable, comfortable, reasonably speedy two-wheeled transportation.
Vectrix also intended to make a big hit in Europe, where scooters and 'cycles are widely used for daily transportation, and perhaps to gain a toehold in the Chinese market (10 million scooters and growing) with an electric two-wheeler that would help answer that country's call for non-polluting transportation for the people.
The Vectrix' big drawbacks were its size, a heft 426 pounds; range, 40-50 miles on a single charge at reasonable commuter speeds (the company claimed 68 miles, but at a steady 25 mph); and price, a hefty $11,000 when it was introduced abut two years ago.
The company's problems - besides marketing - were anchored by poor timing: it launched on the brink of a global economic meltdown that dried up credit and consumer markets and with a scooter that used powerful but relatively heavy and short-range nickel-metal hydride batteries just before the lithium ion battery breakthrough (lighter, more range).
We hope the problems get resolved, but we understand that's a long-shot and that a Vectrix bankruptcy is close to inevitable.
So, an early RIP to a company that shoulda been a contender.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
- Posted by
- John O'Dell July 16, 2009, 2:52 PM
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- Categories:
- Motorcycles, Plug-ins and Electric
- Technorati Tags:
- Electric Scooters, Vectrix
Tesla next?