Fuell, the project focused on electric and urban mobility, led by Erik Buell, was launched in 2019. A year before, the well-known American engineer returned to the two-wheeled sector with the founding of another brand, Vanguard Spark. Through a three-party alliance, the goal in any case was to build both motorcycles and bicycles powered by electricity.
Fuell suffers the same fate as other brands in the EV segment
After several years of development, in 2023 the Fuell Flow was presented, the new company’s first plug-in mount that promised, among other things, travel 240 kilometers for less than 2 euros. Then, Buell itself was looking for 3,000 customers to bet on the project, estimating the first quarter of 2024 as the official launch date of the model.
However, just a few months later the brand’s economic collapse occurred, forcing it to declare bankruptcy. A situation that a priori seemed very surprising to us, since everything was quite well planned, at least seen from the outside. Instead of looking for impossible large electric motorcycles, Fuell focused on mid-size models at competitive prices that could give a twist to the electric motorcycle concept.
Now the brand has finally been auctioned to the highest bidder. A total of 185 lots were awarded by Heritage Global Partners, the company specialized in the matter in charge of this work. The most striking thing about the whole thing is the final price for which its new owners acquired it: $170,000something like 146,000 euros. And it is no wonder, since Fuell owes a million-dollar bill worth $7 million.
To get an idea of why this situation has arisen, we must focus on the ridiculous amounts for which some of the assets that made up the auction lot have ended up being awarded. As detailed from Electrek: “Assets auctioned included the company’s intellectual property, such as the Fuell brand, its website and its patents, which reached $50,000 in several lots.”
Likewise, some of the bicycles that the brand had in stock ended up selling for amounts that ranged between $475 and $1,600 depending on the model. But this is not the worst of the matter, since within this last chapter of Fuell we have the part that the auction house itself took in fees, rates and taxes: $38,000.
“Although a part of the proceeds went towards cleaning and insurance. In the end everything that could be sold was sold, leaving some lots unsold (including bicycle maintenance tools and office chairs)”they end by pointing out from Electrek.
