e.GO Mobile apparently in financial trouble

It appears that e.GO Mobile is experiencing a number of financial challenges. According to German news site Edison, the Aachen-based electric vehicle startup only just escaped insolvency in October when shareholders provided an extra 100 million euros. But it seems these challenges are still to be resolved.

A letter of invitation to the e.GO Mobile AG general meeting sourced by Edison, stated that financing via the market was not possible in October. Sales fell short of planning targets because approval for e.GO Life was repeatedly delayed, and therefore also delivery.

Edison reports that the urgently needed 100 million euros was collected from shareholders: the group providing this financing was led by e.GO Mobile CEO himself Günther Schuh and included the automotive supplier ZF and the RAG Foundation, among others. The letter sourced by Edison also stated that this was the only way “to ensure the continued existence of the company and avoid insolvency.” The situation was apparently quite serious.

And it continues to be so – deliveries are still delayed. By the end of 2019, all 3,300 e.GO Life First Edition pre-orderers were supposed to have received their cars. In September it was announced that only 600 vehicles were to be delivered by the end of the year, with the remaining 2,700 to follow “soon”. This has not yet been followed by an update.

The company now urgently needs income because the additional 100 million euros just gathered in October must be paid back by the end of March 2020 – otherwise, the shareholders have the right to exchange their claim for ordinary shares. According to its own statements, the company expects to be able to service the loan on time. “Based on current liquidity planning, the intention is to repay the loans in accordance with the contract,” the invitation apparently states. Also that it cannot be predicted with certainty that the ongoing talks with other investors “will lead to a positive outcome”.

Meanwhile, the startup has also provided an update on the technical data of the e.GO Life 60: According to this, the most powerful version is powered by an electric motor with 29 kW (continuous peak power of 57 kW) and achieves a top speed of 130 km/h. With a net battery capacity of 21.5 kWh, the electric motor should be able to cover up to 139 kilometres in the combined WLTP cycle. e.GO indicates the consumption with 15.5 kWh per 100 kilometres (including charging losses). The battery can be charged at a household socket within 9.6 hours (0 to 95 per cent). On type 2 (single-phase, 3.7 kW) the charging process takes only 6 hours (0 to 95 per cent). The latest given price of the e.GO Life 60 is 21,900 euros. In addition to the e.GO Life 60, there are also two lower-performance versions. The other planned models e.GO Life 20 and e.GO Life 40 have not yet passed all the necessary homologation tests. As soon as the homologation is completed, the final technical details of these models will be announced.

edison.media (in German), e-go-mobile.com (technical data as PDF)