5 Electric Motorcycles That Will DRAIN Your Wallet
We’re about to discuss five electric motorcycles representing over $100 million in customer deposits that either never delivered or went spectacularly bankrupt. Real people lost real money. Some waited years for bikes that never came. Others received products so flawed [music] they shouldn’t have been street legal. This research could save you thousands. Today, we’re exposing the five worst electric motorcycle disasters of the past 5 years. From $90 million vaporware projects that delivered exactly zero working motorcycles to bankruptcy cases leaving 10,000 customers without refunds to quality controls so catastrophically bad that former employees called [music] bikes death traps. These aren’t minor disappointments. These are industry failures that damaged consumer trust across the entire electric motorcycle segment. Hit subscribe because this channel exposes the truth manufacturers don’t want you hearing. We verify claims. We investigate [music] bankruptcies. We protect your wallet. Let’s expose the disasters. Number five, Enerica, the premium bankruptcy. Starting our list at number five is Enerica, the Italian electric motorcycle manufacturer. Now, here’s why Energa appears on this list. Despite building genuinely excellent motorcycles, they went bankrupt in October 2024 after burning through over $100 million in investor capital. Customers who purchased $30,000 plus motorcycles [music] suddenly faced zero factory support, questionable parts, availability, and plummeting resale values. Inurgica produced legitimately [music] impressive electric motorcycles, including the Ego Sport Bike, Eva Rebel Naked, and Experia Adventure Tourer. These bikes featured batteries up to 21.5 kW [music] hours, delivering 248 mi range. The 169 horsepower EMCE motor provided supercar acceleration. Energ supplied all Mo World Cup race bikes for four consecutive seasons. On paper, everything looked perfect. The reality tells a different story. Founded in 2014, Energica [music] listed on Milan stock exchange in 2016 with 37 million euro capitalization. American investment firm Ideomics acquired 75% ownership in 2022, completing a voluntary takeover bid that delisted the company. Ideomics pumped over €100 million into Energ [music] record 2022 revenues of 13 million representing 200% growth. Energa couldn’t achieve profitability. The company faced brutal market realities, high production costs, limited buyer base, supply chain disruptions. Most critically, when parent company Ideonics encountered its own financial troubles, investment capital dried up completely. By October 2024, Inurgica couldn’t make payroll. 50 employees on Solidarity contracts got paid by Italy’s National Social Security Institute because the company lacked funds. The board voted for judicial liquidation bankruptcy on October 14th, 2024. Production ceased immediately. Customer support vanished. Here’s why this matters. If you’re considering [music] used Inurgica motorcycles, the company delivered hundreds of bikes that now lack factory support. Parts availability becomes questionable. Software [music] updates stop. Warranty coverage evaporates. Resale values tanked when bankruptcy news broke. A $35,000 ego dropped to maybe [music] 20,000 overnight. The positive update is Singapore-based investors acquired [music] Inurgica’s assets in July 2025 with plans to revive the brand. They’re prioritizing existing customer support. However, the revival remains uncertain. New ownership, unproven commitment, unknown timelines. [music] Buying used Inurgica motorcycles carries substantial risk until the new ownership demonstrates operational stability. Number four, [music] fuel flow. 3.5 million raised zero motorcycles delivered. Number four represents one of electric motorcycleycling’s most audacious [music] failures. The Fuel Flow electric motorcycle raised approximately $3.5 [music] million through crowdfunding pre-orders. Legendary motorcycle designer Eric Buell founded Fuel after his previous [music] ventures. Buell motorcycles and Eric Buell Racing both failed. The Follow promised revolutionary urban mobility with [music] 150 mi range, 47 horsepower continuous output, 0 to 60 in under 4 seconds, and futuristic styling, [music] all for just under $14,000. Customers paid $100 deposits with remaining [music] 13,895 due upon delivery. Fuel promised September 2024 deliveries. What actually shipped? Absolutely nothing. Zero working motorcycles. Not one. Court documents reveal shocking details. Fuel raised money for the flow, but diverted those funds to electric bicycle production instead. [music] The Wisconsin warehouse contained ebike parts, but zero FO motorcycle components. Former employees confirmed no actual FO production ever occurred beyond CAD drawings and marketing renderings. Fuel filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy. October 16th, 2024. The [music] trustee liquidated all assets. company. Intellectual property, including patents, [music] trademarks, and website, sold at auction for approximately $50,000. Leftover electric bicycles sold for 1,150 to 1,600 each. Total auction proceeds reached roughly $170,000. That 170,000 covered approximately [music] 2% of the nearly $7 million Fuel owed creditors. Over 350 follow customers provided deposits totaling approximately 3.5 [music] million. None received motorcycles. None received refunds. [music] Bankruptcy court offered the only recourse. But the follow disaster represents just one component of fuels [music] failures. The company also ran Indiegogo campaigns for fluid 2 and [music] fluid 3 electric bicycles raising over $1.5 million. Production delays exceeded 20 documented schedule changes. Most backers [music] never received bikes. The few who did reported quality issues. Former director of project management and engineering Bill Rule exposed Fuel’s dysfunctional operations on the ITC show podcast. Mismanagement, fraudulent practices, [music] diverted funds, poor component selection. The entire operation functioned as a house of cards [music] collapsing under its own dysfunction. Eric Bule’s reputation as legendary motorcycle designer couldn’t overcome fundamental business incompetence. This marks his [music] third major motorcycle venture failure after Bule Motorcycles and Eric Buell [music] Racing. The pattern reveals someone brilliant at engineering but catastrophically inadequate at business operations and financial [music] management. The lesson is clear. Never trust crowdfunding campaigns requiring full payment upfront. Never assume designer pedigree guarantees business competence. Never provide deposits to companies with histories of failed ventures. >> [music] >> Fuel backers learned these lessons the expensive way. Number three, Sondor’s MetaCycle. The [music] $5,000 disaster position three showcases how cheap pricing and aggressive marketing [music] can mask fundamental product failures. The Sondor’s Metycle promised highway [music] capable electric motorcycle performance for just $5,000. That [music] pricing undercut competitors by 50% or more. The concept generated massive attention when unveiled in January 2021. Sondors collected deposits from approximately 10,000 customers. The reality delivered catastrophic disappointment. Production delays started immediately. Supply chain issues, manufacturing [music] problems, quality control failures. Customers who placed deposits in 2021 waited until late 2022 or 2023 for delivery. Many never received bikes at all. Those who actually received Metayycles discovered numerous problems. The finished product [music] weighed nearly 50% more than advertised specifications. The polished aluminum frame became matte gray painted steel. Range fell short of promises. [music] Top speed couldn’t reach claimed 80 mph. Build quality proved shockingly poor. Former director of project management [music] Bill Ruil revealed the metaycle should never have been street legal. Critical homologation issues were overlooked. Speed controllers used cheap components causing [music] frequent failures under load. Poor MOSFET selection and implementation created unreliable performance. Some states refused registration recognizing fundamental safety deficiencies. The business practices proved equally problematic. Saunders required full payment upon ordering rather than deposits. Customers paid $5,000 upfront for bikes that wouldn’t ship for one or two years. That structure provided Sondor’s massive [music] cash flow, but left customers completely exposed when production stopped. Chinese manufacturing partners eventually terminated contracts claiming Sondor stopped paying bills. Approximately 2,000 Metycycles shipped to the United States, according to factory [music] records. However, reports indicate thousands more finished and partially finished bikes sit abandoned in Chinese warehouses due to payment disputes. The factory claims it [music] built bikes using deposit money from future orders. When Sondors couldn’t pay remaining [music] balances, the factory refused releasing completed inventory. Sondors entered receiverhip January 2024. BBB complaints reveal angry customers who [music] paid full price years earlier, never receiving motorcycles and getting zero communication. The company stopped responding to emails. Phone numbers disconnected. [music] customer service vanished. Despite the receiverhip and thousands of unfulfilled orders, Sondor’s founder, Storm Sondors, claims to have reacquired the company and launched new products, including the MetaAat [music] electric dirt bike. Over 7,000 people allegedly reserved the new model. This follows the exact same playbook that failed with the MetaCycle. Big promises, low prices, require full payment, [music] delay indefinitely. The metaycle disaster teaches critical lessons. Never pay full price upfront for products not yet in production. Never trust companies with histories of delays and unfulfilled promises. Never assume cheap pricing represents genuine value rather [music] than corner cutting that compromises safety. The $5,000 price tag attracted customers. The catastrophic execution destroyed lives. Number two, Arc Vector. $120,000. 120,000 [music] problems. Position two represents the premium disaster counterpoint to Sondor’s budget failures. The Arc Vector electric motorcycle commanded pricing exceeding $120,000. British manufacturing, hub center steering, carbon fiber monoke chassis, HUD enabled helmet, [music] haptic feedback jacket, premium components throughout. The Vector promised to be the Bugatti of electric motorcycles. Ark Vehicle delivered exactly 11 motorcycles total before filing bankruptcy. Let that sink in. Over $120,000 per bike. Hundreds of deposits collected. Only 11 units actually delivered, including one to actor Ryan Reynolds. The rest of the customers got nothing. The Ark Vector story spans multiple bankruptcy filings. Original Ark Vehicle Ltd formed in 2017 with Jaguar [music] Land Rover funding. Production was planned for 2019. The company entered administration September 20th, 19 after [music] investors failed delivering promised capital. Founder Mark Truman bought back the assets in October 2020 [music] to revive the project. The relaunched Arkfi LTD began accepting deposits again. The company claimed production readiness. [music] Marketing emphasized the revolutionary technology. Hub center steering inspired by Bimoda. Carbon fiber BST wheels. Olan suspension. 399 volt battery system. 117 horsepower. 0 to 60 in 3.2 seconds. 270 [music] mi range. 40minute DC fast charging. Distribution problems in the United States killed revenue. Truman claimed everything was proceeding well until American distribution collapsed. [music] Without US market access, the business model failed. ARK 5 LD filed extraordinary resolution to wind up operations. March 19th, [music] 2024. Voluntary liquidation followed. Only 11 customers received motorcycles. Here’s what makes this particularly egregious. Ark sold bikes as beta testers under the Archangels program. Customers paid $110,000 to receive incomplete motorcycles and test pre-production human machine interface systems. They were promised production versions free of charge after testing. The bankruptcy left these customers with incomplete bikes and broken promises. The pricing [music] strategy guaranteed failure. At $120,000, ARK needed dozens of sales monthly just covering overhead. The ultra premium electric motorcycle market barely exists. [music] Customers at that price point expect perfection. Any production delays or quality issues destroy confidence. Ark experienced both repeatedly. Multiple journalists questioned Ark’s viability from the beginning. [music] The company raised approximately $1 million through crowdfunding. That sounds impressive until you realize developing a completely new motorcycle platform [music] from scratch costs tens of millions. 1 million covers maybe 6 months of engineering and prototyping. [music] It’s nowhere near sufficient for actual production. Truman continues claiming he’s working with partners trying to rescue Ark from administration. He wants to support the 11 customers who received bikes. [music] Those customers now own orphan motorcycles worth maybe $20,000 that originally cost $120,000. Parts availability is questionable. No factory support exists. Resale is impossible. They’re garage art. The Ark Vector proves that premium pricing and revolutionary technology cannot overcome fundamental [music] business realities. You need sustainable funding. You need achievable production capacity. [music] You need realistic market assessment. Ark lacked all three twice. Number one, Damon Hypers [music] Sport. 5 years, $90 million, zero deliveries. The number one spot goes to the most [music] spectacular vaporware in electric motorcycle history. The Damon Hypersport represents the perfect storm of overpromising, underdelivering, and outright deception. 5 years after announcement, $90 million in reported order backlog. [music] Zero customers received functional motorcycles with promised features. Damon motorcycles burst onto the scene at CES making revolutionary claims. 200 horsepower, 200 mile highway range, 200 mph top speed, shape-shifting ergonomics that adjust handlebars, foot pegs, seat, and windscreen at the touch of a button. AI enhanced 360° collision warning. Pricing started $25,000 for the base Hypersport with $40,000 Hypersport Premier trim. The Canadian company based in Vancouver collected [music] deposits starting 2019. They claimed thousands of pre-orders totaling $90 million backlog. Original production timelines promised 2021 deliveries. Those dates slipped to 2022, then 2023, then 2024. >> [music] >> Now, we’re approaching 2026 and exactly zero customers received working bikes. [music] Here’s what makes Damon truly egregious. Only one journalist outside the company ever rode a Hypersport [music] prototype. Tim Stevens from Wired tested the bike at Thunder Hill Raceway. [music] His experience revealed shocking truth. The adaptive features that Damon heavily marketed weren’t present on the prototype. No shape-shifting ergonomics, no AI collision warning, no [music] rider assistance features. The controls were borrowed parts from a BMW S1000RR. Stevens reported being told [music] adaptive features wouldn’t be included on initial customer deliveries, so the people who paid deposits [music] specifically for those revolutionary technologies wouldn’t actually receive [music] them. Damon planned shipping incomplete motorcycles, then maybe adding features later through updates. Maybe the business operations behind Damon reveal catastrophic dysfunction. Ride-apart executive editor Jonathan Klene investigated discovering numerous unannounced layoffs, founding team chaos and general dysfunction behind the scenes. [music] Co-founder Dominique Kuang left in 2023, returned in December 2024, assuming CEO role. Chief technology officer Derek Doriststein, formerly chief architect at Alta Motorcycles, departed February 20th, 2025. Damon currently lacks a chief engineer capable of actually delivering the promised motorcycle. Manufacturing plans constantly shifted. Original Suri British Columbia factory was abandoned. Plans moved to California, then maybe back to Canada. No facility ever reached operational production status. Recent reports indicate Damon is seeking millions more in capital while the company battles major [music] delays. The stock price tells the real story. Damon went public on NASDAQ. The share price currently approaches penny [music] stock territory. Investor confidence has evaporated. The company burns capital without generating revenue. There’s no clear [music] path to actual production. Multiple journalists now openly state that Hypersport depositors probably won’t receive motorcycles. Rideart [music] titled their investigation, quote, you’re probably never getting the two 100 horsepower 200 mile Damon electric motorcycle. That’s not speculation. That’s investigative journalism backed by evidence. Damon represents everything wrong with electric motorcycle startups. [music] Unrealistic promises, unachievable timelines, incompetent management, constant capital raises, zero accountability. The company operates more like a pumpand [music] dump stock scheme than a legitimate motorcycle manufacturer. Current depositors face a brutal reality. [music] Their money is gone. They’re not getting motorcycles. Bankruptcy seems inevitable. When it happens, unsecured creditors like pre-order [music] customers typically recover pennies on the dollar, if anything. The smart move is demanding refunds immediately, and pursuing legal action if denied. Conclusion and final warnings. These five disasters share common patterns: unrealistic [music] promises, underfunding, management incompetence, delayed production, bankruptcy. [music] Collectively, they represent over $150 million in customer losses. Real people [music] lost real money trusting these companies. The electric motorcycle market faces a brutal shakeout. [music] Even established players like Energica couldn’t survive. Startups like Damon, Arc, Fuel, and Sondors proved unable to execute despite raising millions. The graveyard includes Mission, Brammo, Alta, and dozens more. Here’s how to protect yourself. Never provide deposits to companies without proven production [music] track records. Never pay full price upfront for products not currently shipping. >> [music] >> Never trust crowdfunding campaigns requiring non-refundable payments. Research company financials. Investigate management history. [music] Demand transparency. Buy from established manufacturers with dealer networks. Parts availability and financial stability. Zero motorcycles. Livewire. Inurgica only if the Singapore buyout proves successful. Companies that have shipped thousands of units and maintained operations for years. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. $5,000 highway bikes, $14,000 [music] future tech, $40,000 revolutionary machines. They didn’t exist because they couldn’t exist at those prices with those features. Protect your money. Research [music] thoroughly. Buy carefully. The electric motorcycle revolution is real. But so are the scammers, failures, and bankruptcies littering the path. [music] Don’t become another statistic. If this investigation saved you from making a costly [music] mistake, smash that like button. Subscribe for consumer protection content exposing the truth about electric vehicles. Comment which disaster shocked you most and whether you almost bought any of these bikes. Thanks for watching and remember that sometimes the best purchase is the one you don’t
Not all electric motorcycles are created equal. For every legitimate production bike delivering on promises, there’s a disaster waiting to strand you, drain your wallet, or worse—put you in danger. These aren’t minor quality issues or subjective preferences; these are bikes with documented problems including catastrophic failures, nonexistent customer support, vaporware scams, or specifications so misleading they border on fraud. Before you drop thousands on an electric motorcycle, you need to know which bikes to absolutely avoid regardless of how good the marketing looks.
The bikes earning spots on this avoid-at-all-costs list share common red flags: manufacturers with no established dealer networks leaving buyers stranded when warranties are needed, battery systems using outdated technology or unproven chemistries prone to degradation or thermal runaway, wildly exaggerated range claims sometimes exceeding reality by 50-100%, build quality so poor that components fail within months requiring constant repairs, and customer service ranging from incompetent to nonexistent with owners unable to get parts or support. Some are outright scams—crowdfunded bikes that never shipped despite collecting millions. Others are legitimate companies that simply failed to deliver functional products despite good intentions.
The financial and safety risks are real. Buyers have lost deposits on bikes never delivered, been stuck with unrepairable bikes when companies folded, experienced battery fires from poorly designed systems, and discovered advertised ranges of 150 miles actually deliver 60 miles in real-world conditions. The electric motorcycle market’s rapid growth attracted both serious manufacturers and opportunists exploiting buyer enthusiasm. Knowing which bikes to avoid protects your investment and potentially your life. This isn’t negativity—it’s consumer protection identifying specific bikes with track records proving they’re not worth the risk regardless of price or promises.
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