After the e-bike and e-motorcycle firm SONDORS’s CEO spoke with Electrek on the Wheel-E Podcast final week, the corporate made a number of large bulletins in regards to the love-it-or-hate-it Metacycle electrical bike.
The SONDORS Metacycle has change into essentially the most divisive e-motorcycle launch of the previous a number of years. Followers reward its progressive design and ultra-low worth, whereas critics pan its delayed rollout and decrease efficiency specs than initially marketed at its unveiling.
However regardless of the rocky highway to manufacturing and the even rockier begin of deliveries, the highway-capable Metacycle electrical bike seems to be ramping issues up.
SONDORS founder and CEO Storm Sondors joined us for the newest episode of our biweekly Wheel-E Podcast, which you’ll be able to see beneath (Storm’s part is the primary 20 minutes).
Through the podcast, Sondors shared the information that the corporate has reached a manufacturing price of round 60 Metacycles per day.
And it’s not simply manufacturing that’s ramping up. Deliveries additionally appear to be following swimsuit. Sondors added that the corporate has now “shipped nearly 2,000 models.”
With the primary Hawaii supply of a Metacycle occurring the night time earlier than our interview, Sondors added that the corporate has now delivered no less than one Metacycle to all 50 states within the US.
The information comes barely every week after SONDORS launched an enormous low cost on the Metacycle within the type of a company-provided “credit score” of $2,500 to the primary 1,000 clients to place down a $500 deposit. That dropped the efficient worth of the bike from US $6,500 to US $4,000.
After we requested Storm in regards to the practically 40% worth drop and whether or not it was a transfer to lift some fast funds after the cash-strapped firm postponed its upcoming IPO, he defined that it was really on account of elevated quantity manufacturing that has allowed the corporate to barter higher pricing.
The large low cost led to a fast run on Metacycles, with the corporate exhausting the 1,000 credit in only one week.
In response to the demand, SONDORS determined to increase the $2,500 low cost by way of the unique March 15 deadline, eradicating the cap of simply 1,000 credit. The bikes ordered throughout this era are slated for a supply window of This autumn 2023.
With SONDORS’s historical past of slipping a couple of months previous most of their beforehand acknowledged timelines, an precise supply date of early 2024 wouldn’t be shocking.
Along with extending the $2,500 low cost, the corporate additionally introduced seven new colorways for the bike, together with black and gold rims. Beforehand the bike was out there in simply white, black, or silver colorways.
Electrek’s Take
The corporate is clearly pushing exhausting to drive gross sales of Metacycles, and it seems to be working.
Taken at face worth, Storm’s up to date manufacturing and supply figures are promising and may very well be essential to the corporate’s capacity to remain cash-flow optimistic within the coming months.
The manufacturing price is actually spectacular and can doubtless be music to the ears of any clients nonetheless on the market who ordered a motorcycle over two years in the past and have but to obtain it. However take into account that a 60 unit/day manufacturing price doesn’t essentially imply 1,800 bikes monthly or 20,000 per 12 months. SONDORS makes use of contract manufacturing, which generally leads to manufacturing occurring in batches. So SONDORS may very well be making 60 bikes per day but the variety of whole manufacturing days in any given quarter could fluctuate.
Even so, if SONDORS can sustain manufacturing and discover a method to ramp up deliveries, particularly to these nonetheless ready a 12 months or extra since their preliminary deposits, then the Metacycle could be on a path to smoother roads.
