An early pioneer in the electric bike market in North America, Juiced Bikes appears to be falling. According to many customers, the San Diego e-bike company has ghosted them a lot and failed to respond to repeated customer service inquiries. At the same time, the company's website is out of stock for all products and its goods appear to be headed for auction.
There is no confirmation from the company, but several signs point to financial distress and possible closure of the company.
Juiced Bikes is one of the oldest continuously operating bike shops in the country. I'm a dinosaur in the industry, and even when I got involved with e-bikes back in 2010, Juiced was already a big player (although they were known as Juiced Riders at the time).
The company pioneered electric cargo and utility bikes in the US with its ODK model, launching a decade before the popular RadRunner. The brand then continued to evolve, becoming the first to offer high-speed and high-powered models to budding riders.
But now the brand seems to be in deep financial trouble that could lead to the closure of the company, and the radio silence from the brand has only fueled rumours.
Social media is full of customers complaining about not being able to communicate with the company. Several have shared instances of their bikes being stuck in service limbo while the company has lost communication about repairs or bike return schedules.
Others shared purchase situations that went unfulfilled for months.
“Was charged $2k for a bike ordered in July, which I canceled in September after being kept on line about shipping delays,” explained one user Reddit. “I filed a dispute with my bank but I'm still waiting.”
The Juiced Bikes website is still active, however all of the company's bike models are currently listed as obsolete.
I have reached out to several executives at the company but have yet to receive an official comment on the status of the product.
Despite the company not being specific, recent developments in the saga of Juiced's possible financial collapse appear to have sealed the deal. The company's assets are now appearing on an auction site that is often used for companies that have gone out of business.
Everything from the company's existing product range and its manufacturing of tools in China to its intellectual property rights appear to be up for auction. Even the company's Sprinter van with the Juiced Bikes logo is up for sale.
The past few years have been a difficult time for the electric bike industry. Following the huge wave of e-bike sales in the post-pandemic period, the market cooled down significantly leaving many e-bike manufacturers with large overstock conditions.
Venture capital funding began to dry up after an easy financial period following the pandemic, continuing to pressure many bike companies in the U.S.
At the same time, a number of new Chinese electric bikes have opened their doors in an attempt to get a piece of the big e-bike pie, often dangling attractively low prices that several US brands can't compete with. with. Leaders in the US budget e-bike market, such as Lectric Ebikes, have also squeezed competitors with strong pricing that has helped them amass a large market share.
We've already seen some major e-bike companies enter the fold in the past year, including SONDORS in the US and VanMoof in Europe. If Juiced Bikes is headed for a similar fate, it's unlikely to be the last.
Electrek's Take
Although there is no official word from the company, for now, it seems that the closure of Juiced Bikes is a foregone conclusion. With its assets up for sale, there doesn't seem to be an end to the company as we know it.
This is a truly sad event for the industry and just another reminder that we are at a time when there are hundreds of e-bike companies competing for the same customers. Every year there are more bikes on the road than ever before, yet the meteoric growth of the post-pandemic years was clearly unsustainable. Just as the American auto industry eventually put a hundred or more car companies out of business in the last century, the bike market may be headed in the same direction.
This is also uniquely painful for Juiced customers who are left waiting for bikes they ordered or hoping to get service on products they already have. Fortunately, someone at Juiced appears to have zeroed out the website's inventory to prevent phantom sales that may not be delivered, but that doesn't help those who have been left out to dry.
If there's room for hope, it's that this doesn't necessarily mean there's no future for Juiced bikes. The brand and its assets can still be bought by an investor or company hoping to revive the e-bike brand. If so, this may not be the last mile marker on Juiced's 15-year journey.
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