ONLY TWO MONTHS ago, Electric vehicle manufacturer Vectrix filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, with plans to restructure and continue as New Vectrix.
According to a press release reportedly issued by China’s GoldPeak Batteries this month, Vectrix is preparing to return with a new Lithium Iron Phosphate-powered version of its VX1 electric bike.
GoldPeak is one of Vectrix’s original stakeholders. If the press release posted at the V is for Voltage website is to be believed, the Chinese battery manufacturer has acquired Vectrix’s assets and liabilities.
“This move is a triple win for customers, suppliers and for the employees. It provides the required stability to develop the key market and the right product,” the press release quotes Wolfgang Gohl, former Vice president for Operations and supposed new Vice President.
“The EV market is just starting to emerge, first policies are under development and Vectrix and his partners are in a prime position to supply a quality product for various applications.”
Future versions of Vectrix’s VX1 electric scooter will reportedly be powered by more powerful Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, replacing the previous model’s Nickel Metal Hydride cells.
Two smaller models are expected to arrive after 2010, delivering outputs equivalent to 50cc and 150cc petrol-powered scooters.
It remains to be seen whether the press release can be believed. Neither company has posted news of an acquisition on their websites or through the usual media channels.
The Motor Report has contacted GoldPeak and Vectrix in the US and will report further as more information comes.
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I have own and ridden the vectrix vx1 for 9 months now and did 15.000 km , it changed my life really.
commuting with this scooter is a real dream, the only thing is that we all feared that the company bankruptcy, we feard not to have the possibility of getting fresh battery pack given the fact that many batt pack failures have been reported .
the range of this scooter is nice as it is provided one have access to charging point say every 40 km there is absolutly no need to think about range, the range is really 50 to 70 km but is it is nice to recharge it before the end of the battery .
the fact is that the vec charges very quickly and so during work time one can refill half the batt in arround one hours which is more then acceptable
Lithium will give us even more range but in addition it will make the batt pack more reliable, the internal resistance of lithium cells beeing less important this kind of battery will heat less and will be less prone to overheat and die prematuraly as it is with the current nimh battery .
we, vectrix owner also hope that the batt pack will be more affordable then it is at the time cause 5000 dollars or so is too expensive for users .
we also hope that the new pack will come with a descent BMS that will balence and check individually every battery cell .
It would be great to use the vec just as any scooter without having to concern about battery haldeling and without living in fear wondering every day if our 9000 euros scooter is going to die the day after .
many of of have really bet on the vectrix both for ecological and financial reasons, paying a high price hoping it would save enough money to compensate for the high price of this bike .
We all think that now that the vectrix corp is own by the batt manufacturer things are gonna be better and that all or concerns will disapear and that we soo will be able to say to the world that this mean of transportation is just the best .
so far for the majority of us it remains a dream, but we have to say that appart form the reports of battery failure we have had no feed back about global reliability statistics .
we think that 3000 vectrix are on the road and the various forum let us know that there have been dozens of failure but how much excatly , we vectrix users don’t really know, and we would like to know .
I am personnaly confident that a properly used vectriw even running on nimh is able to reache a good 50.000 km of more but it is just a hope …
Take this release with a grain of salt. Research the source. Release did not come from Gold Peak Batteries or GP Industries, the new owners.
If it sounds too good to be true….
Still waiting for confirmation from Vectix about this rumor!
jean michel urbani How do you charge your Vectrix in 1 hour?? Mine takes 3 hours to charge! Does the European version have a high-voltage charger? (The U.S. version does not).