Porsche builds up e-bike engagement, takes stakes in Fazua & Ponooc
Porsche expands its involvement in the rapidly growing market for e-bikes. The German sports car manufacturer announced it acquired a stake in Fazua, a manufacturer of lightweight e-bike drive systems, and established a strategic partnership with Ponooc Investment.
Specifically, Porsche is taking 20 per cent in Fazua GmbH. There is also an option to acquire further shares, which would allow Porsche to take over Fazua in full.
The company was established in 2013 near Munich for the sole purpose to develop a lightweight e-bike drive. Today Fazua employs more than 100 people and claims that over 40 brands rely on their technologies, including Bianchi, Cube, Pinarello, and Focus.
Their e-bike system integrates the motor inside the bottom bracket and also hides the battery inside the frame, making it only slightly bigger. Overall, the drive weighs in with no more than 1.5 kilos, including the battery for a range of 50 km.
In today’s communication, Porsche did, however, not say whether it was planning to use the Fazua drive anytime soon.
The company already offers the Porsche eBike Sport and eBike Crossrange – both models have almost sold out – in cooperation with premium bike maker Rotwild. The Porsche pedelecs use the Shimano drive. However, from the looks of the frame, Fazua would be an option in line with the visual strategy, but this remains speculation.
Over to Ponooc
What is clear are the intentions for the deal with Ponooc, a Dutch investment company specialising in sustainable energy and mobility solutions. Porsche plans to establish two joint ventures: One will develop, manufacture and distribute a future generation of high-quality Porsche e-bikes. The second company will focus on technological solutions for the micromobility market.
Ponooc is part of Pon Holdings B.V., a trading and service company with around 16.000 employees worldwide and a particularly mighty player in the bike industry, coming from automotive. Their portfolio includes Gazelle, Cervélo, Urban Arrow, Focus, Santa Cruz, Kalkhoff, Cannondale, Schwinn, and CALOI. Pon claims these bicycle brands have delivered 710,000 bikes globally, of which over 60% were electric.
Regarding both new investments, the sports car manufacturer considers these part of “a clear strategy: Porsche’s expertise will be supplemented by the market-specific know-how of Fazua and Ponooc, which has a broad portfolio of ventures in micro-mobility and mobility platforms.”
The joint ventures with Ponooc and the Fazua transaction are subject to clearance by the relevant antitrust authorities, is also the Stuttgart-based company would say.
Porsche and Fazua further agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
Porsche has, however, earmarked a total of 15 billion euros to invest in new technology through 2025 and slated €6.5 billion for developments in hybrid and electric vehicles.
Almost 40 per cent of the Porsche cars delivered in Europe in 2021 were already electrified, i.e. plug-in hybrids or fully electric models. Worldwide, the share was just under 25 per cent, so the company.
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