Rad Power Bikes made a name for itself in two significant ways. One, it was one of the early ebike manufacturers when it retooled itself into a direct-to-consumer ebike brand in 2015, becoming one of the more established brands by the time the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns drove ebike sales through the roof.
The other way was through a widely reported 2023 lawsuit over the death of a 12-year-old child who was riding a Rad Power. It’s been hard to separate the ebike manufacturer’s name from the lawsuit ever since.
Through it all, Rad Power Bikes has been one of the most visible brands in the industry. Even as we lost other heavyweight names, such as Juiced, VanMoof, and Cowboy, who pulled out of the US market, Rad Power soldiered on. So it’s astonishing to hear that layoffs are looming, and the firm may be out of business as soon as January if it can’t find new funding.
Rad Power Ebikes Could Go Under SOon
The ebike industry is in an immature state that is rapidly maturing, and as with most industries, the bloom of so many companies that spring up during a new technology’s immature era tends to wither and consolidate as certain companies become heavyweights and others can’t compete.
Rad Power, being one of those prior heavyweights, seemed like a brand that’d taken a few bumps to the head, but not one whose survival was threatened. Yet Electrek, reporting on Rad Power’s troubles, said that “the bartender of a brewery located next to Rad Power Bikes headquarters (said) the company’s parking lot has largely been vacant in the last few days, and is currently empty today (November 10).”
TechCrunch reported that the company sent its employees an email last week saying that the 64 people working at Rad Power’s Seattle headquarters who face termination aren’t staring down the barrel of a targeted layoff, but rather that it’s just “the only Rad Power office with enough workers to necessitate this kind of mandated warning.”
According to TechCrunch, the email read, in part, “In the event the company is forced to close, Rad would be required to cease operations on January 9, 2026, or within 14 days thereafter, In that case, Rad expects that any cessation of operations will affect all locations and departments, will be permanent in nature, and that all employees will be terminated effective January 9, 2026.”
It won’t be the only ebike manufacturer to go out of business in the past couple of years, as Lectric, Specialized, Giant, and Trek continue their grip on the market. Heck, even REI Co-op Cycles exited the ebike sphere in recent years.
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