Connected Magazine

Pedal to the metal: e-bikes have their moment

Despite the collapse of VanMoof, electric bikes are growing in popularity

The initial success of VanMoof, and of its contemporaries flush with venture capital cash, helped push e-bike awareness in Europe. But that hasn’t come without growing pains

When Dutch e-bike darling VanMoof filed for bankruptcy over the summer, it cast a pall over Europe’s e-bike space.

VanMoof had in recent years seen its e-bikes, known for their sleek design, grow in popularity and went some way to pushing ownership deeper into the mainstream. But a choppy couple of years with supply chain kinks had sealed its fate.

For Olivier Vander Elst, head of Irish e-bike retailer GreenAer, it is the latest chapter ...