Dutch investors save e.Go Mobile as it turns Next.e.GO Mobile
After being under threat from bankruptcy, the Aachen electric car manufacturer e. GO Mobile has announced its new start: On 1 September, the entire business of e.GO Mobile AG, including all subsidiaries and employees, was transferred to the Dutch investment group ND Industrial BV
The new company is called Next.e.GO Mobile SE and is headed by CEO Ulrich Hermann, the former Head of Digitisation at the listed company Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG. The e.GO founder Günther Schuh is relinquishing operational responsibility as part of the change of ownership and will take over as Chairman of the Board of Directors. The purchase agreement with Next.e.GO Mobile SE has been notarised. Both parties have agreed to keep the purchase price under wraps.
As soon as approval as a vehicle manufacturer for the new company has been granted, and the supplier contracts have been changed, production at the Aachen Rothe Erde plant is to restart. The company says that service and sales of the small electric car, the e. GO Life, has now begun again.
This year at the beginning of April, e.GO Mobile AG filed for insolvency under its own administration. The company was struggling financially, and further investors were being approached while existing investors had to raise funds. The company then had to file for insolvency when the Corona pandemic affected sales and supply chains. Even without the economic effects of the pandemic, e. GO Mobile had not been able to achieve their targeted sales and production figures for the e-mini-van e. GO Life.
Founder and eMobility innovator Prof. Dr Günther Shoe was relieved to be able to secure the Dutch buyer. “We didn’t just want to survive the pandemic and the crisis it caused, we wanted to come out stronger and become the German icon that e. GO is destined for,” Schuh said. “To do this, we needed to find a professional and strategic partner with whom we could realise our great growth potential. We found that with our new partner and its visionary leadership.”
Now moving forward, Next.e.GO Mobile SE will continue the work on “various low-cost and particularly durable electric vehicles for short-distance traffic”. In the short term, this will mean the e. GO Life, and since the new company also wants to offer sustainable mobility systems, it remains to be seen whether the Life concept will be retained in this form that is geared to private customers.
The German electric mobility pioneer e.GO Mobile also has a joint venture with ZF called e.GO Moove, which this year plans to complete the homologation of the e.GO Moove in the vehicle classes M2 (People Mover) and N1 (freight transport). On the company’s website, the new investor was announced, also saying: “On 1 September 2020, Next.e.GO Mobile SE will take over the entire business of e.GO Mobile AG including all subsidiaries and will continue with the employees through a transfer of operations.”
The investor ND Industrial is an international private equity company and belongs to the holding and investment company ND Group. The company holds investments in infrastructure services, energy, logistics, real estate and financial services. On its homepage, ND Group states that it aims to achieve “long-term, sustainable value” and places “great emphasis on flexibility, both in decision-making and in the selection of investments”.
Thomas Poplat, Manager M&A at ND Industrial, says about the new investment: “We are excited to support e. GO in the future. The company fits very well with our focus on sustainability, electrification and digitalisation”.
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