Juiced Bikes, the much-lauded Southern California electric bicycle maker, appears to have been sold at auction for around US $1,225,000.
Or at least the companyโs branding, intellectual property, remaining inventory and assets have been sold, with the actual status of the company still somewhat unclear.
While we still donโt have any official confirmation from the company, Juiced Bikesโ website has been out of stock for weeks and customers have been complaining that the company has gone radio silent with them.
When we recently reported on the apparent financial duress and potentially pending closure of the company last week, Juicedโs assets had just been put up for auction, removing what little doubt remained about the direction that the famed brand was headed.
The company was split into a series of auction lots covering everything from over a dozen patents to the companyโs multiple URLs and even a Sprinter cargo van, as well as all of Juicedโs stateside and China-based inventory. The final result of the auction, which ended yesterday, appears to have been a sale with a sum US $1,225,000.
However, no one knows yet who placed the winning bid.
At that level though, thereโs little doubt that some type of institutional investor or rival electric bike maker likely stepped in to grab the Juiced Bikes brand and assets for pennies on the dollar.
In addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars of existing inventory included in the sale, the Juiced Bikes brand carries significant value based on around 15 years of building its strong reputation in the industry.
At its prime, Juiced Bikes was well known for producing powerful, high-performance e-bikes designed for a wide range of riding styles, from commuting to adventure riding. The companyโs strong reputation for focus on long-range battery capabilities and innovative designs was built over nearly 15 years, beginning with one of the first electric cargo bikes available on the market in the US.
Popular models like the HyperScrambler, RipCurrent, and CrossCurrent helped Juiced Bikes carve out a niche in the competitive e-bike market, offering riders impressive power, speed, and durability. The companyโs commitment to delivering e-bikes with greater power and longer range made it a prominent player in the growing electric bicycle industry, though it obviously wasnโt immune to the volatile funding landscape in the e-bike market following the post-pandemic boom.
At this point, weโre still waiting for official word from the companyโs founders and any other information that could help determine what will become of this groundbreaking e-bike company that was making waves in the nascent North American electric bicycle industry years before todayโs largest e-bike brands were even an idea.