The SONDORS electrical bicycle firm infamously went bankrupt in 2023, but it now seems to be trying an increase from the ashes. The corporate’s founder and former CEO Storm SONDORS is again on the helm and pre-selling a brand new electrical motorcycle with a considerably acquainted identify – the Meta AT.
However will riders be as soon as bitten, twice shy?
SONDORS initially burst onto the scene means again in 2015 – the early days of the US e-bike scene – by providing a $500 fats tire electrical bike by way of a crowdfunding marketing campaign. Many referred to as it a rip-off after the corporate was late to ship, and the bikes that did finally arrive didn’t fairly stay as much as a number of the loftiest claims, however the firm did finally ship. Within the practically decade afterward, SONDORS continued following that very same recreation plan: promising the moon for an unbelievably low value, then delivering one thing that was virtually what they’d claimed and virtually on time. However they at all times delivered.
At the least, till they didn’t.
After discovering success within the electrical bicycle market, SONDORS ratcheted issues up in 2021 with a groundbreaking design for a light-weight electrical bike generally known as the Metacycle. However that’s the place the wheels began to fall off the proverbial e-bike.
The challenge considerably overran its timeline and finally delivered simply shy of two,000 bikes that didn’t fairly stay as much as their initially promised specs. Over a number of months, the deliveries started slowing to a trickle and finally ceased. Extra on that in a second. For now although, the essential factor to notice is that was one of many key items that led to the corporate’s undoing (although some would say an enlargement of SONDORS’ electrical bicycles into huge field shops compelled tighter revenue margins and didn’t assist issues both). In the end, SONDORS finally overran its money provide and did not make funds to suppliers, prompting the corporate’s chapter and coming into into receivership.
That brings us to in the present day, with Storm Sondors now telling Electrek that he has managed to purchase the corporate again out of receivership and, with it, has launched the brand new Meta AT. In contrast to the street-ready Metacycle, the brand new Meta AT is an off-road electrical motorcycle meant to compete with Sur Ron, Talaria, and different mild electrical dust bikes.
The 4 kW peak-rated motor claims a prime pace of as much as 50 mph (80 km/h) and a spread of as much as 60 miles (96 km) from the bike’s 2.5 kWh lithium battery. Lengthy journey entrance and rear suspension mixed with additional knobby tires place the Meta AT for path using and basic off-road shenanigans, that are acquainted territory for Sur Ron riders.
Whereas the bike is just not street-legal, SONDORS will provide a “Road Authorized Equipment” together with mirrors, lighting, and different elements. It’s unclear how far this may go towards true road-legal compliance. The corporate walks that tightrope by recommending that riders ought to “test together with your native registration legal guidelines and authorities, as laws differ by location.”
And with its claimed MSRP of $4,200 marked down to simply $2,299 for these courageous clients ready to pay in full months forward of manufacturing or supply, SONDORS seems to be sticking to its low-cost pre-order playbook of “pay now and belief us that you just’ll experience later.” Once more, that at all times labored up to now, at the least till it didn’t.
To some, the brand new bike and the provide it presents sounds doubtful, at finest. As SONDORS’ advertising and marketing emails went out, various forwarded emails landed in my inbox from individuals expressing a spread of feelings from confusion to shock to downright anger. With at the least 500 paying clients having been left with out Metacycles (plus an unknown variety of SONDORS electrical bicycle clients omitted to dry), a SONDORS revival was certain to lift just a few eyebrows… or furrow them.
And so to try to study extra about what occurred for the reason that huge breakdown, and what may occur subsequent with this supposed new Meta incarnate, I went straight to the supply. I reached out to Storm Sondors, and wouldn’t it, he really answered.
As I peppered him with questions, to his credit score, he was fairly forthcoming. He genuinely appears to precise regret for what occurred on the finish of SONDORS unique run and defined that he has been “working relentlessly to discover a decision for these remaining backers.” The sentiment is good, however it doesn’t make anybody complete once more and there doesn’t but look like any strong recourse within the works.
As for what went fallacious on the finish, Storm shared with me what he says is an inventory of funds totaling over US $11 million to the Chinese language manufacturing unit that produced the Metacycle. This helps corroborate a lot of the backstory that led to an expose I wrote in 2023 after I lastly discovered an inside supply on the manufacturing unit, additional illuminating a significant disagreement between SONDORS and the manufacturing unit it contracted to construct its Metacycles.
Because the manufacturing unit informed me again then, after a number of rounds of Metacycle manufacturing, Storm positioned a big deposit for an additional main manufacturing spherical, which the manufacturing unit used to purchase 1000’s of elements to construct the bikes and put together a brand new manufacturing line. However when monetary issues hit SONDORS, he did not pay the stability on present manufacturing runs, which left tons of of completed Metacycles gathering mud within the manufacturing unit’s warehouse in China.
Storm confirmed me a spreadsheet of funds he made to the manufacturing unit and defined that he requested the manufacturing unit to shift his deposit for future manufacturing in direction of paying off the stability on present manufacturing, which might have allowed him to take receipt of tons of of accomplished Metacycles. The manufacturing unit says they resisted as the cash had already been spent on elements, extra workers, and tooling up a brand new manufacturing line, all to assist accommodate SONDORS’ main new manufacturing order. Shifting the fee would have been a breach of contract, the manufacturing unit claimed, and would have left them out hundreds of thousands of {dollars} and not using a assure that future manufacturing they’ve already begun investing in would ever be paid for.
The 2 events have been at loggerheads ever since, and Storm shared that he has tried to rope in QS Motors, a significant Chinese language producer and the guardian firm of the manufacturing unit that produced the Metacycle, into “stepping in to resolve this matter urgently for the advantage of SONDORS Metacycle clients.”
At this level, it doesn’t seem that both get together has budged. Storm continues to say “I paid!” whereas holding up over US $2 million in deposit receipts, and the manufacturing unit continues to say “Sure, however not for these bikes, you didn’t.”
That leaves the previous SONDORS in a stalemate, with no decision in sight. However that hasn’t stopped the newly reborn SONDORS from pushing ahead with its Meta AT launch. “The Meta AT is a special machine solely,” Storm defined. “Smaller, lighter, and constructed to be extra agile. It leans towards the off-road class with a value and efficiency stage that opens it as much as a a lot wider viewers. Sure, it’s deliberately nearer to the Sur Ron phase, however with SONDORS styling and experience expertise.”
With a decrease efficiency, easier, and even much less authorized motorcycle than the unique Metacycle, the barrier for manufacturing will definitely be decrease this time, however will that be sufficient to win over skeptical riders?
Storm thinks so, and claims to have acquired over 7,400 Meta AT reservations “by means of non-public channels, with early entry provided to these people.” The bikes at the moment are out there to the general public for pre-order by means of an Indiegogo marketing campaign, which at the moment reveals 36 backers. Storm says reservations are “changing in levels. As they do, you’ll see the numbers mirrored on the marketing campaign web page.”
I requested Storm if he was fearful about riders trusting SONDORS after the corporate’s abrupt closure in 2023. For him, there wasn’t any query. “I created this class. Earlier than SONDORS, there was no mass marketplace for electrical bikes – now there may be. I’ve shipped tons of of 1000’s of models. I’ve constructed the factories, the tooling, the availability chains. This isn’t a aspect hustle or a brand new concept. That is what I do. And the Meta AT is the perfect machine I’ve ever constructed. You possibly can query the business. You possibly can query the hype. However don’t query whether or not I ship. I at all times have.”
And he’s proper. SONDORS did at all times ship. Till it didn’t.
