Moove struggles with insolvency
In Germany, the Aachen-based Moove GmbH (formerly e.Go Moove GmbH) has filed for insolvency. The company, which specialises in electric shuttles and currently employs 90 people, has been “hit by recent developments in the financial market”, according to insolvency administrator Dirk Wegener.
According to an official company statement, Moove GmbH filed for insolvency with the Aachen District Court on 19 October. The company says it got stuck on a financing round that could not be completed on time, “which led to payment difficulties”. Moove GmbH is in the middle of the capital-intensive production ramp-up of the all-electric CargoMover van and the PeopleMover minibus.
The company was granted street approval for its electric shuttle bus at the beginning of 2021. Like the first representative of the Mover family, the People Mover, the Cargo version was planned to be offered with a fuel cell range extender on request. The People Mover unveiled in 2018 has nine seats and six standing places and should be able to drive for up to ten hours in the city centre (without the range extender).
The company was founded in 2018 as a joint venture for electric shuttles by ZF and e.GO Mobile – at the time, still under the name e.GO Moove GmbH. ZF withdrew from the joint venture at the end of 2020; e.Go Moove was supposed to build autonomous vehicles for passenger and freight transport in Aachen.
Since then, ZF continued to develop the project on its own but is currently rumoured to be looking to sell off parts of its prestige project ‘People Mover’ and electric axle business. So far, ZF has only confirmed that a sale of shares for the axel division is under consideration. At the end of 2020, Miltenyi Biotec from Bergisch Gladbach took over the e.GO Moove shares from ZF as part of a financing round. At the time, Prof. Günther Schuh was still CEO of the joint venture. In the phase thereafter (in the course of the e.GO takeover by the ND Industrial Group), the company was separated from e.GO and consequently renamed Moove GmbH, although the current ownership structure is not clear from the insolvency notice. Günter Butschek, a former Daimler and Airbus manager, has been CEO since April 2022.
“We see a highly innovative company here whose developments are about to be ready for the market, and we will do everything in our power to win new investors with a viable restructuring concept,” provisional insolvency administrator Dirk Wegener is quoted as saying in the statement.
Günter Butschek adds: “We are convinced that we can find a quick solution in the interest of our motivated staff, our committed partners and our vision of innovative sustainability.” The concept and pre-series phases, which form the basis for series development, have been completed, he says. There is “great interest from potential investors”.
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