French e-bike startup Angell has declared insolvency after it was forced to recall all of its first-generation Angell Mobility e-bikes.
In an email sent to customers, the company announced that this is due to a hardware issue with the fragility of the bike’s frame posing a risk of breakage – leading the company to recall 5,000 e-bikes in circulation.
On LinkedIn today, Angell Founder Marc Simoncini announced that legal action has been initiated to establish the responsibilities of Angell, its manufacturing partner SEB, and design partner Kickmaker in relation to the fault.
“While the reported cases appeared rare and isolated – accounting for less than 0.1% of bikes in circulation – the safety of our riders is our absolute priority,” Angell CEO John Mollanger told Zag Daily. “We had no choice to recall all first-generation Angell Mobility e-bikes in circulation, accounting for 5,000 bikes. Therefore, the solution quickly became clear for our customers: exchange their bike for a new-generation model, or refund them.”
Angell became aware of cases of frame breakage last November. Its decision to recall all 5,000 bikes in circulation is resulting in several million euros of claims.
John said that the brand to date has still not been able to precisely determine the technical cause of the fragility. However, the defect relates to the frame’s manufacturing and specifically the bonding of the tubes.
“As a result, we took the time to contact SEB Group, which is both our technical partner, the frame manufacturer, and the bike assembler, with the goal of determining whether we could isolate a “risky” series of frames from over 7,000 “first-generation produced” frames.
“Additionally, we sought to understand which factors could exacerbate or create the risk of actual breakage. Unfortunately, we were unable to provide a satisfactory answer, leading us to conclude that this entire generation of bikes carries a risk.”
John said that from the first meeting in early November, “it became clear that SEB Group did not consider itself responsible for the defects affecting the bikes and did not wish to participate in finding a solution.”
He said Angell has made other proposals to its partners which would allow for the continuity of operations and the implementation of an exchange of refund operation but no agreement has been reached.
“Faced with the impossibility of carrying out the solution alone, Zebra/Angell has no choice but to declare its state of cessation of payments and request the initiation of a liquidation procedure,” John said.
Zebra is the company that produces and markets Angell.
“Angell is facing a critical issue: thousands of first-generation bikes have been recalled, resulting in several million euros in claims. As an innovative SME, the company lacks the resources to absorb these costs on its own, forcing it to consider the liquidation.
“The brand may be reborn always but likely not under the current company’s form as it will likely cease to operate.”
Concerned models in recall are the Angell M Rapide, Angell S Rapide, Angell M Cruiser, and Angell S Cruiser.
