Global electric two-wheeler brands that promise to stretch the product or technology envelopes are like cult movies. They failed when they needed to work. But once they died, everyone remembers them fondly. They have more fans than customers, and that’s a pity.
Everyone loves a back-from-the-dead story. A story that presumably ended but has since come back from the dead is one of resilience, of perseverance, of new starts, of optimism, of everything that humanity should cheer for.
So is the case with once dead, now alive, electric two-wheeler brands. A few of them have come back, and we have a new sense of optimism for them and for the industry.
Cake
There was a time when Cake was the poster boy of uber-cool electric mobility. From neat-looking off-road machines to mopeds with industrial styling, Cake was doing it all. That “doing it all” was perhaps not a good idea. Cake invested heavily in multiple platforms and product designs that did not have the market fit they imagined. Think fasteners in billeted aluminium on a moped designed for handymen, with an attachment to carry timber! It just did not come together as a cohesive product offering.
But damn! They looked good.
However, looking good and being good products are two different things. Cake was a work of passion and made little sense when you peeled the styling layers away. We can explain a lot here, but celebrated motorcycle designer Michael Uhlarik, the newest addition to our advisory board, wrote the most comprehensive case study on Cake on his website MotorcycleGlobal.
Cake raised a lot of capital in its lifetime—nearly USD 75m between 2019 and 2021. However, rapid expansion, overinvestment, capex commitments, and aggressive retail investment—doing too much together—meant that it ran out of money. It would file for bankruptcy in February 2024.
A few weeks later, the company would be purchased out of receivership by Brages Holding AS, a Norway-based retailer of Toyota cars. Since then, Brages has been working on steadying the ship and developing a new business plan.
The new business plan hinges on reestablishing Cake as a premium manufacturer of electric two-wheelers and expanding the retail network in the Scandinavian region. We read it as going slow on new products, new plants, and outlets outside Northern Europe in the immediate future.
While little is apparent about the retail network expansion, the flagship store in Stockholm has reopened, and the former CTO, Petra Färm, is at the helm of the business.
Energica
When green-tech focused fund Ideanomics acquired Energica in March 2022, the common feeling was that the Italian manufacturer of performance electric motorcycles was finally in a financially stable place.
Over the years, Energica has established itself as the only brand that makes plausible performance electric motorcycles that could run along 600cc – 1000cc ICE motorcycles. However, like what is the common problem with electric motorcycles, the weight and performance were never in the same pin code as ICE motorcycles. Sales were slow, even though Energica offered a wide portfolio.
A key problem was that Energica’s entire portfolio was targeted at the top band of performance motorcycles. The air is thin at those levels. Energica was always short of funds.
What became the final blow was Ideanomics itself struggling as the tide turned against climate-tech investments. None of its investments was doing well, and it could not fund Energica. As a result, Energica filed for bankruptcy in October 2024.
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Since then, Energica’s assets have been put up for auction multiple times, each time with decreasing baseline amounts. However, the Italian superbike manufacturer failed to attract any bids.
Then, in July 2025, news surfaced that Energica and its assets may be acquired by a group of Singapore-based investors. The company indicated that the judicial process is expected to conclude in 60 days.
Brekr
Innovative moped manufacturer, Brekr, is based in the Netherlands, operating and manufacturing in the country. Brekr made a name for itself by designing a moped around an aesthetic aluminum spine frame. The frame is the main aesthetic member, and the use of aluminum with the geometry ensures that the Brekr weighs only 69 kg, sans battery.
At the same time, at nearly EUR 5,000, the Brekr is an expensive moped for the fashionistas. That, in the stagnant EU economy, is not a very large TAM.
To target a wider audience, the company would also create a fat bike with the same aesthetics.
However, due to supply chain problems, challenging supply-chain logistics, and an overall liquidity crunch, Brekr would file for bankruptcy in early 2025.
Within weeks, Brekr would be rescued by EcoMotion, an Israel-based group that also owns bicycle brands QWIC and AGU. The group would retain the original Brekr team, and for now, it’s business as usual. The EcoMotion acquisition would give Brekr financial stability, and the company can pursue its ongoing business plans.
UBCO
UBCO first caught our attention with its 2×2 motorcycle. Yes, as the name implies, the UBCO electric motorcycle has a two-wheel drive with motors in both the front and rear axles. That makes it great on paper, but we do scratch our collective heads if that was the biggest problem to be solved in electric two-wheeled mobility.
Still, UBCO made a name for itself as a supplier of fleet motorcycles, especially in the ANZ geography. More than the 2×2 drive, it was the sturdy frame and the utility design that made UBCO a good fit for fleets in the ANZ region. One of the biggest orders for the company came from Australian Post, which ordered 175 motorcycles.
But then, ANZ is a rather small market.
UBCO needed to stretch beyond the borders, and that needed funds, funding that was hard to come by as the world entered private money winter. As a result, the New Zealand-operated and Taiwan-manufactured UBCO went bankrupt in January 2025. The manufacturer of innovative utility mopeds could not sustain momentum when funding dried up.
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However, last month, it was announced that UBCO has been rescued by a new set of investors. The investors are high-net-worth individuals (HNIs), all based in New Zealand. The earlier owners, Jubilee Investments, remain a significant shareholder (39%), though the majority ownership now lies with a group comprising Sir Stephen Tindall (through his family office K1W1), Peter Goodfellow (Avalon Asset Management), and the Holdsworth family office, Evander Management. Together, they are working under the umbrella of Utility Fleet Vehicles Ltd.
The deal also includes UBCO’s Australia and New Zealand-based subsidiaries, which were not under receivership. To maintain continuity, Oliver Hutaff has returned as the CEO of the rescued company.
UBCO is likely to focus only on fleet sales for now as the new owners try to steady the ship. The planned global expansion and chasing retail sales may be on the back burner for now.
Damon
Technically, Damon never went bankrupt. All it has gone through is a comprehensive change in management, including replacing the CEO, the CTO leaving, and Damon getting delisted from Nasdaq and starting trading in the OTC market.
The turmoil has changed Damon into a company that is decidedly moving away from the HyperSport hyper electric motorcycle. That’s not a bad idea – the HyperSport was hyper-undoable, and if done, hyper-unsellable. It was an eclectic mix of cutting-edge technologies, all being done at once. The end product, if it hit the roads, would have taken electric two-wheeler technologies several notches higher. However, it would have been difficult to price the HyperSport rationally, making it extremely niche.
For now, the HyperSport has again gone to being a work in progress, with Engines Engineering being retained as an engineering consultant. We are not holding our breath for the hyper motorcycle, but we are for Damon’s future. The pivot, with Dom Kwong taking over as CEO, was a strong one, and it seems Damon would be back with smaller, more practical machines. It remains to be seen what form factor the new products take.
A Common Thread Ties All
While resurrections are good news, things won’t break again only when you change them. When brands and companies come back from the dead, they do so with new owners, and that’s a good thing. We have had short-lived resurrections in the past, like Arc Motorcycles, where the previous owner had salvaged the company. The second life was not long either.
New owners bring new ideas and a new style of execution. In many of the cases above, we have seen a renewed focus on certain aspects, a focus on practicality, a watering down of passion, and that makes a lot of sense. As an illustration:
- Damon is focused on being more practical and achievable, instead of creating a halo motorcycle. That may work out for them, as a practical target is easy to comprehend when compared to a halo one.
- Cake is now focused on being a premium brand in Scandinavia. This is quite a climbdown from their global aspirations, but understandably, the new owners want to chase profitability first before running after expansion.
- UBCO is now focused on the fleet market. Anyways, in its previous iteration, the company found maximum success in the fleet market.
Returns are Great for the Industry
Halo brands are great for the industry, even when the actual numbers, in sales or financials, matter little. Each of the above brands has stretched the envelope on technology, design, or product attributes. In almost all cases, the outcome was far from desired. However, that does not take away from their importance.
As much as the world needs India/Indonesia-based electric moped manufacturers and Africa-based electric motorcycle deployers, the world also needs some impractical idiosyncrasies. We won’t know what works or not until we go and break some things.
