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[JaimeC]

https://www.asphaltandrubber.com/news/alta-motors-ceases-operations/

[Richard230]

H-D swooped in and invested in the Alta Motors electric motorcycle company earlier this year. Then a few months later, (coincidentally?) after announcing their own line of future electric motorcycles, H-D pulled out of the deal, leaving Alta high and financially dry. Alta's cash has now run out and they have had to shut their Brisbane, CA, factory down and send their employees home until they can find new sources of funds, according to that article. (Not an easy thing to do for an electric motorcycle company in today's economy.)

As you all know, (by looking at the brands in this site's sub-forums that are no longer with us) it is a tough life being a production electric motorcycle company.  Hopefully Alta will find some funds somewhere and be able to resume production of their unique and well designed motorcycles. 

I might add that I have a friend who knows someone that works in their factory and maybe I will be able to acquire some inside information regarding this story.

[Fran K]

What is dog eared?  Some have prick ears and some have fold over ears.   Anonymous source.  They had their business model,. Would not sell me the dirt bike MX I believe with an 18 inch wheel.  There was quite a lot of new ones on cycle trader.com last I looked.

[Shadow]

Not happy about this news. What other serious electric dirt bike manufacturer is there?

[Richard230]

Not happy about this news. What other serious electric dirt bike manufacturer is there?

I always thought that selling a dirt off-road motorcycle made a lot of sense, especially one that had an up-to-date chassis.  In urban and suburban areas, dirt riding has been pretty much run out of town due to the noise of the activity - especially racing. But with a quiet electric motorcycle you would think that issue would be mostly resolved.  KTM makes a dual purpose model, but it doesn't seem to be selling very well and I am not sure if it is very competitive in off-road racing .

Alta should be successful, but it sounds like they might have been selling their bikes at a loss to grow the market and their reputation and that won't work for very long unless you are a huge company with other products to pick up the tab, like BMW and Energica. Once you start discounting a vehicle, raising the price when you need to in order to make ends meet never works out well - just ask Brammo right before they sold out to Victory.    Or was that Victory right before they went bust?

[Richard230]

This financial disease seems to be spreading:  According to an article in Motorcycle Consumer News (page 9, November issue), the American V-4 ICE-powered motorcycle manufacturer, Motus, has also had to cease their operations after the company's financial backers pulled out.   

[ashnazg]

I wonder if investors have seen the cost issues HD has expected due to the tariffs affecting their supply chain, and decided they'll probably also adversely affect other moto makers.

[Richard230]

I wonder if investors have seen the cost issues HD has expected due to the tariffs affecting their supply chain, and decided they'll probably also adversely affect other moto makers.

Could be, but I believe that Motus sourced very little (if any) of their parts from China.  My guess is that their financial investors just wanted to move their money to somewhere else that would bring a better return in today's economy and left the company out to dry. 

[Richard230]

Here are a few more words regarding Alta shutting down production.  It sure sounds like H-D greased their skids:
https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/alta-motors-says-thanks-for-the-memories

[MrDude_1]

In a nutshell... they would have been fine except Harley said they wanted them. So they didnt look for money (remember they're expanding, so they need investor income)

Then Harley backed out. At the last minute. With no real warning.

Since they were counting on that Harley money, they didnt have a backup plan... and now they're out.

[plebivac]

Any updates on this?

[Richard230]

Any updates on this?

Not that I have heard. All quiet on the Brisbane Western Front, just south of San Francisco.