Amsterdam bike manufacturer VanMoof is bankrupt. The company’s founders announced this in an internal email. The company has already applied for a deferment of payment.

In the letter to employees, VanMoof Taco founders and Teese Carlier said it was not possible to turn the tide. They thank hundreds of employees for their efforts over the past fourteen years.

VanMoof has long been known as a pearl of growth and seems to be on its way to conquering the world with electric city bikes. The past week turned out to be a big financial problem.

“We are grateful to all of you and sorry we could not accomplish this task together. We feel sad, but above all proud of what we have achieved,” the brothers wrote.

The trustees will be looking for candidates to restart, so that repairs can also be made again. It is not clear what will happen to the employees. This also depends on the possible reboot.

Last Wednesday, VanMoof obtained a payment deferment. The company has been going bad for a while. Many of the bikes sold have defects. As a result, VanMoof spent a lot of money repairing bikes that had a warranty.

on them Own site VanMoof itself reports that no new bikes will be delivered at this time, even though they have already been paid for. This also applies to required accessories and parts.

Customers who have ordered a bike and made a down payment must file a claim. Any refund depends on how you restart VanMoof. The same applies to new parts.

VanMoof bikes consist largely of components developed by the company itself. In 2021, the latest year for which numbers are known, VanMoof suffered a loss of nearly €80m.

VanMoof has had to turn to investors several times for money to keep the company afloat. Just under 200,000 VanMoofs have been sold since the company was founded in 2009.

Since payment is deferred, people have to pay for repairs and maintenance at Kwikfit, even if they still have a warranty or maintenance contract with VanMoof. The garages of the bankrupt company itself are closed. “In general, people understand this,” says Peter Becker, director of e-mobility at Kwikfit. “Or they say: I’ll wait a little bit, maybe he’ll be back to normal soon.”

The repair company is now out of selected VanMoof parts. For a few weeks now, VanMoof owners have been able to go to three Kwikfit branches for maintenance and repairs. “We are in contact with VanMoof about whether we can get new parts,” Bikker says. “I suppose we can’t get these parts ourselves, the shortest hit would be straight through the VanMoof.”

Kwikfit can still do things that don’t require certain VanMoof parts, like tire repair and brake replacement and maintenance. VanMoof warns that bikes that can be picked up from garages sometimes don’t get repaired.