Electric car start-up e.Go Mobile forced to delay deliveries

In an almost Tesla-esque move, e.Go Mobile, the latest start-up to come out of e-mobility hotbed Aachen, has sent an email to reservation holders: The delivery of their electric car e.Go Life would be delayed by months due to suppliers exercising caution after diesel-gate.

As Elon Musk would do for Tesla, e.Go Mobile CEO Professor Günther Schuh took it upon himself to write an email to reservation holders. While all is on track from their side, he said, meaning a first batch of electric cars is being readied to leave the factory in Aachen next month, customer deliveries will be delayed, possibly until April 2019.

To give an explanation, Professor Schuh pointed to suppliers having introduced additional measures of Corporate Governance. This means they not simply deliver the components any longer but also double check whether the OEMs have assembled and integrated these as intended. Those extra checks come in response to the diesel scandal, where carmakers had tweaked third-party software (although it is not entirely clear if or, how they could have done so alone).

Although e.Go Mobile never has and never will build diesel cars, these measures mean that homologation of their e.Go Life electric car will take until April 2019. To speed up deliveries afterwards, they say they will start producing in two shifts from June next year at their factory in Aachen.

Buyers in Germany should note that they will have to sign the contract to buy before or on June, 30, 2019 for it to be eligible for the plug-in grant (Umweltprämie).

Those wanting to remove their reservation for the electric car e.Go Life may do so and will be paid back their 1,000 euro deposit in full, the company said.

Initially e.Go Mobile wanted to start serial production this summer (we reported). They aim for an electric vehicle production capacity between 10,000 and 20,000 units a year.

twizy-forum.de (email to reservation holders repost, in German)