That question is not even correct. The real question is: Where do the people who bought from now-dead brands go for support? Texas-based Volara Motorsports Group may have the answer.
At InsightEV, we have always maintained that electric mobility, at the amateur level, allows an unprecedented ease of development that is not possible with ICE. You can put together an electric scooter, motorcycle, lawnmower, or a Kree runabout, using an electric powertrain, some cells, and electronics. Most of them would be off the shelf. Try doing that with a 250cc engine, and it’s just not possible. The engine development itself will kill the project.
As a result, electric mobility attracts an uncanny number of new entrepreneurs who, drawn by the ease of development and the possibilities of easy-to-tinker-with electric powertrain and connectivity features, want to create something different. The attractiveness of becoming a challenger brand in a market, made conducive by private funding, is a huge positive for cottage-scale e-mobility. Many of these entrepreneurs end up recreating their teenage fantasies, and products that would never pass the grueling filtration of a proper product planning department at a large OEM end up hitting the roads.
The Year Four Question
We often advise investors in researching startups. In any such exercise, the typical question that I like to ask myself and the startup founder is:
What could be your right to win in year four of operations?
If the startup’s USP is making electric motorcycles for farm use, the TAM dies right at the collective borders of Texas, New Mexico, Montana, Arizona, and Wyoming. That’s a couple of thousand electric motorcycles. The entire demand would be over in 2-3 years.
What will you do in year four?
Founders are slippery weasels. For survival of the company, they would ‘pivot’, an interesting startup term. In simple language, it means, “Can’t make money through Plan A, so we are off to Plan B.”
In real terms, it means, “I want to stay relevant, and I can, because I still have money in the bank.”
That Plan B could be anything over the top, like instead of making farm bikes, you now become a Bitcoin Treasury operations. The problem is that you left customers holding your Plan A product. Those customers need support that no amount of Bitcoins can deliver.
These extreme use cases are very prevalent in the global market, where entrepreneurs driven by personal passion, and supported by private money, end up making products that fail the year four test. They collapse, leaving behind a few thousand of the early adopters who now struggle to keep the product running.
Enter Volara Motorsports Group
This story was triggered by the late last month’s announcement by Volara Motorsports Group of the acquisition of (whatever assets remain of) Arcimoto. For the uninitiated, the Oregon-based Arcimoto developed an electric three-wheeler with a reverse trike configuration. With two wheels in the front and one in the rear, the Fun Utility Vehicle (FUV) offered more fun and freedom than what a regular car would deliver, and better weather protection and stability than a motorcycle.
The electric powertrain just made things better and more endearing to investors.
Arcimoto was a story of why founders should not fall in love with their product. The company took nearly ten years and eight iterations to perfect the FUV before starting production in 2017. Sales could have been faster. At the end of 2022, the company had a little more than 500 Arcimotos on the road, 228 of which had been delivered that year.
It’s not that they were short of money. Pre-IPO, the company had raised nearly $60 million. The IPO netted them another $20 million. However, Arcimoto became a tale of cautionary arithmetic. At peak, split-adjusted, shares traded above USD 600. But by May 2024, things had gone really bad, and the company was delisted from Nasdaq, while trading around 12 cents by that July. Then the website went dark, and the phone lines were disconnected, even as courts ordered it to pay a former manufacturing partner USD 1.0 million.
This was just one of several suits.
But the balance sheet was just part of the disease. A USD 20,000 tandem-seat electric three-wheeler is a wonderful thing that almost nobody buys.
And yet, a few hundred Arcimotos remain on American roads. These are not simple scooters. These are pretty complex reverse trikes. Things would break down. They would need service. The Volara acquisition of the Arcimoto assets is a great move for the people who need support.
That’s where Volara Motorsports Group makes so much sense. The company announced its presence only two months back as a holding company for “high-potential brands across motorsports, performance, cycling, and adjacent enthusiast markets.” It’s language that is vague enough to mean anything. Then Volara opened its shopping list, and the pattern got specific fast.
Lynx Motor Works
Lynx is an Austin-based builder of hand-built, ultra-low-volume “reimagined classics,” and was the first on Volara’s shopping list. That acquisition happened in May 2026. With Volara’s money, Lynx now has four programmes planned and a GT LM due in early 2027, alongside a partnership with IndyCar driver Graham Rahal. Volara’s money also ensures that whoever has purchased a hand-built, reimagined classic from Lynx can breathe easy that the company and the crew are going to be around for a long time.
Monday Motorbikes
Monday Motorbikes followed in mid-June. The California-based electric two-wheeler brand makes micro e-bikes and moped-class machines. It has a long history of struggle, and Volara stepping in to acquire them would be a relief for anyone who has bought a Monday moped. There are a few thousand of them in the US.
There was more to it behind the scenes, and we will come to it soon.
Arcimoto and the launch of E-Garage
Then came the Arcimoto acquisition in July, and we have already spoken about it. Arcimoto was a closed shop, and Volara is actually stepping in to pick up the pieces. With the acquisition of Arcimoto, Volara announced the launch of E-Garage, a dedicated service and support network for electric mobility. The first E-Garage location will open in Eugene, Oregon, Arcimoto’s hometown and the heart of its owner community.
From the company’s press release:
As much as the acquisitions are interesting, the speed of acquiring companies is to be admired. Volara has closed three acquisitions in ten weeks. The third one, Arcimoto, would have been quite messy even from a due diligence and paperwork perspective. That indicates a founder who has a very clear mind and target.
Or one who knows the business, has been there, and sat on many boards in the past.
The Founder: Chris Okonsky
Volara’s founder, Chris Okonsky, has done this multiple times earlier, failing every time. He comes across as a technology innovator with multiple patents to his name. To start his story, remember the rant about electric farm motorcycles early in this story? That was Volcon (NQ: VLCN), and Chris Okonsky was the founder.
Okonsky was the founder and chairman of Volcon from 2020 onwards. Needless to say, Volcon did not have an answer to the Year Four Problem. Somewhere in the journey, it realised that the Grunt farm bike did not have a future, and changed its business to e-bikes and ATVs. In 2024, it would change its name to Empery Digital, Inc., with Okonsky serving as Chairman.
Chris was also on the board of Monday Motorbikes between 2017-21.
EV startups and their love for cryptocurrencies
Empery would soon become…ahem…a Bitcoin Treasury company. This would lead to entertaining financial results like in Q1 2026 when the company had revenue of USD 225,702 against a USD 85 million Bitcoin loss.
Even before that, Okonsky was the Chairman of AYRO (NQ: AYRO; formed through SPAC with DropCar), founded in 2016. The company made low-speed, purpose-built delivery EVs. If they were in Europe, they would be classified as Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEVs). It was in trouble throughout its life and received a notice of delisting in Oct 2022. It then changed its name from AYRO to StableX Technologies (NQ: SBLX) in August 2025. The company now invests in foundational tokens for the stablecoin industry. Okonsky is out.
To be fair to Okonsky, I am not questioning his character or intent. In both cases where his companies became crypto peddlers, it happened after he had departed. However, repeated failures in similar businesses do lend the question: Has he got the business and unit economics right this time?
Management Speak
“The Arcimoto assets provided the foundation for E-Garage. Opening our first location in Eugene is intentional: it’s home to one of the highest concentrations of Arcimoto vehicles on the road, and it will serve as headquarters of the newly formed Monday Mobility Group. That gives us one organization dedicated to light electric mobility — the products, the service network, and the team to support riders nationwide.” – Christian Okonsky, Founder and CEO of Volara Motorsports Group.