Happy Halloween / The Ghosts Of Electric Motorcycles - Adventure Rider

Nov 04, 2024

Image: Motorcycle Global

On dark days as this, during the long night of All Hallows Eve, we old timers recall the electric motorcycle companies that passed, often in gruesome circumstances, from this world.

While the tales of zombie motorcycles are well known, and their carcasses continue to inhabit the roads and dealership floors of our lives, too often we forget to heed the lessons electric moto startups, whose ghosts haunt boardrooms and manufacturer headquarters to this very day.

So sit back, wrap yourself in a heavy, warm blanket, pour yourself a stiff one and lock your garage door. For the truth behind the terrible fate that befell these poor brands is too horrible to contemplate without adequate fortification.

Image: Motorcycle Global

It was truly a dark and stormy night in Sweden when the banks came calling for Cake. The darling of interior designers, millennial bloggers and lifestyle influencers everywhere, Cake raised north of $74 million only to deliver fewer than 6,000 motor vehicles, many of which had catastrophic structural problems.

Like a monster from a mad scientist’s lab, Cake bikes were ill-conceived, deformed beasts with no heed paid to human ergonomic needs like comfortable seating, appropriate lighting, or to the cracks forming in suspension parts and frames. As problems mounted, parts and unsellable defective machines piled up in warehouses, choking off the company’s resources despite the ravings of its vast marketing department.

Cake died, but its ghastly corpse was reanimated by a Norwegian car dealer and some American distributors. The ghost of Cake looms on the horizon, its pasty, minimalist Scandinavian form wafting just out of touch, quietly absorbing cash and relinquishing nothing.

Image: Motorcycle Global

Long ago, at the dawn of the modern electric motorcycle, a bunch of good ol’ boys from the Pacific north-west got together and created Brammo, a new electric motorcycle company that promised to combine the sex appeal of Ducati with the high technology that the region was famous for.

Little did they know just how quickly their happy journey would come to an end. Raising $77 million and launching three models in four years, much was made of their rapid rise and purported success. New online motorcycle media sites declared Brammo the leader among an emerging “big four” (their words, not mine) of electric motorcycle brands.

Brammo couldn’t deliver on the lofty performance promises made in endless marketing activities, or even deliver motorcycles at all as was the case for the mass market Enertia model. The company succumbed to the inevitable when creditors came calling, only for a last minute reprieve in the form of Polaris Industries, who bought the half-dead company.

All’s well? Not quite. Polaris rebranded the existing stock of unsold Brammo electric bikes as Victory models, itself a brand rapidly shriveling on the vine. After a couple of seasons, non-existent sales and the disgrace of being bested by Zero motorcycles which cost less and were readily available, Polaris let the withered husk of Brammo slip away into the netherworld, never to be seen as a motorcycle again.

Image: Motorcycle Global

Remember when being compared to Tesla was a positive reference?

There has never been any shortage of dreamers who aspire to create their own motorcycle. Engineers, designers (including this author), entrepreneurs, gritty builders and shady grifters have all tossed their hats into the ring and tried their hands at motorcycle manufacturing. After the meteoric rise of Tesla, many sought to create the “Tesla of motorcycles”.

Arc Vehicle Ltd., a celebrity-backed maker of “the world’s most advanced motorcycle”, was originally founded in 2017, presenting it’s vision of a high tech electric street motorcycle that promised “Moto-E level performance”, a haptic “Zenith” jacket and custom helmet with a heads-up display, and range of 270 miles (430 kilometers). The bike was called the Arc Vector, and cost $110,000. Within less than 24 months the company closed down because they had no idea how to make any of that happen.

The founder repurchased the assets from the liquidator and started over, renaming the company Arc V ltd,. This time, it was reported that Arc had about 20 orders and delivered 11 complete motorcycles to customers. However third party testing revealed actual performance significantly below the promises, and the accessory smart wearables never materialized. Arc announced that they ran out of money and closed down again this February, citing incomplete homologation processes and US distribution.

Some say that the blocky bulk of the Arc Vector can be seen rising from the Thames estuary near London when the fog is just right. Others say the moulds from the carbon fibre battery housing were seen in a skip outside a curry shop in Hammersmith. All we know is that Arc is dead. Really dead this time.

Image: Motorcycle Global

As everyone child knows, it is dangerous to stick a finger into an electrical socket. The board members and investors at Harley-Davidson must have missed that crucial bit of early childhood development, as they rammed their collective fists into the equivalent of a high voltage transformer, subsequently frying half a billion dollars.

Since entering the market in 2017, Livewire has sold less than 2,100 vehicles across four models, missed every revenue and sales target by two orders of magnitude, and alienated most of its few customers and dealers by delivering shockingly low quality vehicles that randomly stop working, and are subject to multiple recall notices.

Partners like Kymco, a Taiwanese motorcycle manufacturing giant that invested $100 million have silently left the relationship while parent Harley-Davidson, who fronted three-quarters of the money to get Livewire off the ground, announced plans this month to reintegrate the failing electric motorcycle brand into its operations in Milwaukee. No more Silicon Valley tech lab or fancy avocado toast for you, Livewire. It’s PBR and some oily leftovers from now on.

The US media, particularly in the financial sector, continue to repeat the spin from Milwaukee but motorcyclists know the score. Livewire is not quite dead yet, nor is it a zombie sucking life out of its host. Harley-Davidson told investors that it is cutting costs to the bone and leaving well enough alone, meaning that future investment isn’t forthcoming. That makes Livewire a fatally crippled soldier, staggering bloodily from the field, leaving entrails of guts on the ground as it blinks out of consciousness.

Livewire will soon join the graveyard and haunt the rest of us like the ghosts of Fuell, Sondors, Mission Motors, Lit Motors, Alta, Cake and Brammo. Another disembodied spectre terrorizing the minds of investors, dealers and hapless owners who were seduced by dreams of electric motorcycling…

Will you be next?

Happy Halloween!