EV startups are hard. That's just a fact of life.
Whenever you're trying to build something from scratch, it's going to take a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and most of all money to get something up off the ground. Even with investors pouring billions into the space looking for the next hottest thing.
But when you combine building something from scratch with EV tech, something that much of the public hasn't yet embraced, along with motorcycles which is already niche in and of itself, well, that's a recipe for incredibly difficult times. The road is littered with defunct EV motorcycle manufacturers.
There are a variety of reasons behind that trend, though the public's lackluster response toward electric bikes is likely the main culprit. That's not to say the products were bad, but expense, terrible range, and software issues aren't great marketers for new tech when your market is small to begin with.
And, if reports are to be believed, we'll soon be able to throw another stalwart of the group onto the mound of once-promising companies: Energica.
According to Italian outlet Chronica, there's a "crisis situation" occurring at the brand, as workers have taken to picket lines and formed a strike as their future remains in doubt. The outlet claims that Energica's workers have been, for months, on a solidarity contract through Italy's Istituto Nazionale della Previdenza Sociale (Social Security Institute) which has been paying them directly, but that contract will expire October 22nd. Furthermore, the executives have been evicted from the warehouse "following a negotiated debt settlement."
Not great, folks. But it gets worse.
Chronica then goes on to state that the workers, the region's government, and Energica's board have been meeting throughout the last few weeks, but a recent meeting made the situation worse. "Friday's meeting in the Region was, in fact, yet another black smoke," said the outlet, "The CEO had informed Fiom Cgil, Rsu and institutions that the Board of Directors would meet on Friday afternoon, and this in order to decide whether the company was in a position to give production continuity or if it was necessary to open a judicial liquidation procedure."
The push from the local and federal government to figure out what the future holds is to ensure the workers are protected from "a cessation of business activity" as their INPS contract ends next week.
Energica's potential downfall occurs during a time when more of these electric motorcycle startups are also failing. Cake closed and has since been purchased. Alta was closed after Harley's purchase of the company. Harley itself is losing hand over fist with LiveWire. Arc Vehicle is gone. Arcimoto is no more. And there are a number of others that just couldn't get traction and have since disappeared.
I suspect we'll soon see more.
If this report on Energica is accurate, it paints the company's future in serious doubt. I've reached out to Energica on the matter and will update this article if and when they respond to our request.
