Arcimoto, the long-sputtering electric-vehicle company, is being evicted from the factory it occupies in west Eugene.
In a lawsuit filed late last month in Lane County Circuit Court, the landlord, a Eugene family trust, says Arcimoto is behind $207,000 in rent and failed to pay up by a Jan. 31 deadline. The landlord wants “possession of the premises.”
Arcimoto stopped making its snappy, three-wheel EVs several years ago. But it has continued to operate at the 34,000-square-foot factory it leases at 2034 W. 2nd Ave., repairing and servicing the vehicles for owners, and working on come-back plans.
The $207,000 is likely about eight months’ worth of rent on the property. The landlord has terminated the lease due to non-payment, the lawsuit says. Until the debt is paid, Arcimoto, under state law, cannot move its equipment and other property out of the factory, the legal filing claims. The landlord intends to sell those assets to recoup what it is owed, the filing says.
Arcimoto has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit. A lawyer for Arcimoto did not reply to messages from Eugene Weekly. Neither did the company. A lawyer for the trust declined to comment.
The eviction lawsuit is the latest crisis for Arcimoto. Is it the end of the road?
It’s unclear who owns or leads the company. Its assets appear to consist of vehicle designs, plus tools and equipment. The west Eugene factory appears to be the company’s only facility.
A decade ago, Arcimoto was flying high, raising money from investors and lenders. The company leased the West 2nd Avenue factory in 2017 and ramped up production. The company then bought and equipped its own huge factory, on Chambers Street in Eugene, in 2021. But Arcimoto’s EVs, fraught with mechanical difficulties, never caught on with consumers. Sales slumped. Arcimoto laid off staff and shut the Chambers factory. Then, unable to make mortgage payments, it surrendered the place to its lender.
In early 2024, the company’s shares were delisted from the NASDAQ stock market and later became worthless.
The company’s financial woes continued. Arcimoto fell far behind on sending the state the income taxes the company had withheld from employee paychecks, state filings show. Also, under its lease for 2034 W. 2nd Ave., Arcimoto appears to have been liable for paying the factory’s property taxes. But Arcimoto fell behind on that obligation, too. All told, the company faces a tab of nearly $600,000 to bring itself current on the withholding payments and the property taxes, records show. And that doesn’t include the $207,000 in back rent.
The back-taxes tab totals about $275,000. If Arimoto doesn’t pay, that cost would fall to the landlord.
Bricks $ Mortar is a column anchored by Christian Wihtol, who worked as an editor and writer at The Register-Guard in Eugene 1990-2018, much of the time focused on real estate, economic development and business. Reach him at Christian@EugeneWeekly.com.
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