VanMoof Raises $128 Million To Become 'Most Funded e-Bike Company In the World' (theverge.com) 24
VanMoof says it's now "the most funded e-bike company in the world," after raising a total of $182 million in the last two years. The Verge reports: The company claims to have almost 200,000 bikes on the road currently, with the goal of getting 10 million people on VanMoof e-bikes in the next five years. Such aggressive expansion goals require significant capital. VanMoof's new funding round has been earmarked to expand production and to "reinvent the way in which hardware and software components are made," according to a blog post announcing the new investment round. More specifically, VanMoof co-founder Taco Carlier tells The Verge in a phone interview that most of the funds will go towards R&D, "having more people on the hardware and software development in order to improve the quality and reliability of the bike."
For comparison, RadPower, the largest e-bike maker in the US, raised $150 million earlier this year, adding to the $25 million it garnered the year prior. Investors are pouring money into electric bike makers in the hope of capitalizing on the global e-bike market which is expected to be worth almost $50 billion by 2028. In March 2021, e-bikes already represented 17 percent of all bicycle sales in Europe, and accounted for more than 50 percent of all new bike sales in countries like Germany and the Netherlands.
For comparison, RadPower, the largest e-bike maker in the US, raised $150 million earlier this year, adding to the $25 million it garnered the year prior. Investors are pouring money into electric bike makers in the hope of capitalizing on the global e-bike market which is expected to be worth almost $50 billion by 2028. In March 2021, e-bikes already represented 17 percent of all bicycle sales in Europe, and accounted for more than 50 percent of all new bike sales in countries like Germany and the Netherlands.
Suspensionless, slow, and expensive? (Score:2)
Why would anyone want these over better options? I don't get it.
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Is it much cheaper?
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Just googling "dutch style ebike" yields better bikes that cost half as much.
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For a road bike, suspension is arguably a bad thing, as it adds weight and complexity and slows the bike.
Regarding power, a casual cyclist tends to average around 100 watts, when these seem capable of 250 watts in Europe and 350 watts in the US (where the power is less limited.) This is generally sufficient for those who want to ride their bicycle like a bicycle rather than a motorcycle -- it's enough to hit 20 mph on level ground without pedalling, and the laws tend to limit these things to 20 mph when no
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I did that, and I chose a road wheel rather than a mountain bike wheel in order to minimize rolling resistance. However, even with the best anti-thorn tires I could find, it still gets a flat every 50 miles or so. So you really want something more like motorcycle tires.
Another issue is that the weight of the battery on the rear rack makes the bike top-heavy. It's better to have a battery that fits in the triangle or on the seat tu
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I've found that Schwalbe Marathons and Gatorskins are big winners when it comes to flat-resistant tires, and I find that I can measure the distance between flats in thousands of miles most of the time, at least until the tires get worn. I definitely wouldn't want motorcycle tires.
And the sort of bike I've been riding lately [bacchettabikes.com] doesn't even have a triangle or a seat tube. Plenty of options for battery placement, however -- on a rear rack is easy, but under the seat somehow would be ideal.
But yeah, the motor r
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Agreed. Bicycles are relatively a commodity item that have been pretty well honed over the last 120+ years of development. There is not much room for software to significantly improve things, even on an e-bike. Sounds fishy as hell to me.
The real room for bicycles to differentiate is in individualized fit, features, and aesthetics (all of which goes against Van Moof trying expand out of their niche). Part of what make the non-E-bike market so great is that all the interchangeability that allows folks to
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This is kind of an Apple-ish product; they're selling design, not specs. I'm completely OK with that; design does matter. But some specs matter too.
You don't need a suspension on a 46 pound bike that is meant to operate at city commuter speeds. You don't *want* a lot of speed -- then your vehicle legally becomes a moped or even amotorcycle. And that 46 pound weight is actually pretty light for an ebike; that's 15% *lighter* than the *omafiets* ("grandma bikes") that Dutch people use as last-mile transpo
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This is kind of an Apple-ish product; they're selling design, not specs.
I totally agree, an overpriced gadget which you'll probably not see outside Amsterdam.
Somebody may like the design (I think it is ugly as hell), but no suspension (Holland is a flat country but littered with speed-bumps) and a front
weel hub: you'll want a mid-drive which will give better torque and steering.
For day-to-day use (I average some 3500 km/year) there are lower priced and much better alternatives.
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Holland is the land of the "grandma bike"; the average speed of a Dutch rider is just 12.4 km/hr. However if you look at *Strava* users, you'll see average speeds in Amsterdam at over 25 km/hr. This suggests distinct populations: people moving at just above a jogging pace and other people moving at the speed of a world class middle-distance runner. I don't think the bulk of users have to worry about speed bumps, and the users going at 25 km/hr aren't going to want a bike that weighs that much.
I agree tha
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This is kind of an Apple-ish product; they're selling design, not specs.
This is in no way comparable to Apple. For instance, almost all the bikes come with pre-scratched paint, and sometimes the nuts and bolts will have started rusting before delivery. Build quality is horrible.
My local bike shop tried a few but stopped selling them.
And how many of their current 200,000 bikes (Score:1)
Have been thrown in lakes already [www.cbc.ca]? Past experience suggests something along the lines of 60,000.
3,000,000 ebikes thrown into bodies of water is enough to pollute water tables.
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Have been thrown in lakes already [www.cbc.ca]? Past experience suggests something along the lines of 60,000.
3,000,000 ebikes thrown into bodies of water is enough to pollute water tables.
The aericle you're linking to doesn't mention bikes but talks about rental electric scooters, it's not obvious to me how you could be confused about that?
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AFAIK VanMoof is a location service only, unlike RadPower which sells their e-bikes.
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I'm under the impression the article is about https://www.vanmoof.com/ [vanmoof.com] which sells e-bikes directly to consumers, are we seeing different pages depending on locale or are we discussing different companies?
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Based on taustin's comment, I thought VanMoof was the company I read about a year ago that rented e-scooters and had now started doing the same with e-bikes. But it seems taustin was wrong and it was a different company. In my defense, it's hard to remember with all the weird-ass stupid names these days and I was too lazy to look it up.
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Thanks for clearing up the confusion!
I wants one.... (Score:1)
maybe I should go to bed (Score:2)
because I read that as e-bilk.