Startups go out of business all the time. It's part of the inherent risk of doing business and doing so without the financial backing of a large company. And that's especially true within the vehicle manufacturing space as, I don't know if you know this, but making a vehicle is actually pretty hard.
There's loads you need to solve for, including part manufacturing, engine or drivetrain sourcing, engineering issues, legal issues, as well as finding the right customers for your machine. That all gets especially hard when you price said vehicle where only the richest 1% can afford it as, though there are more 1%ers than ever before, they still don't make up that much of the general population.
Case in point, Arc Vehicles, which planned to produce a $130,000 electric motorcycle. Planned being the operative word as the company supposedly went under a few months ago. But as of this week, the brand began posting on Instagram once again and relaying that they hadn't folded, which would be news to us.
The news of Arc's end came from both the brand's CEO Mark Truman and the UK's Company House which is sorta like the US's Chamber of Commerce and notes any sort of legal notes from public and private companies. As of April of this year, Arc Vehicles had made an "extraordinary resolution to wind up" and appoint "a voluntary liquidator," i.e., it would be closing operations and liquidating its assets.
At the time, Truman told MCN that "Ultimately when you sell high-cost low-volume bespoke products it doesn’t take many people letting you down to put you in a difficult position," adding, "Things had been going very well, but distribution issues in the US really hurt our revenue which forced us to seek investment.”
Arc Vehicles had only sold 11 motorcycles at the time of its filing with the UK Company House to close the business.
Now, Truman also told the outlet in April that "I’m currently working with partners and am determined to try and bring Arc out of administration. I will also do everything I can to support client motorcycles in market going forward," so maybe this spur of social media posting is in relation to that.
But at the time of writing, nothing has been filed with the UK Company House that says Arc Vehicle is returning to the land of the living. And given past precedent with that arm of the UK government, it would be odd for the company to return and not file anything with it ahead of time.
Prior to five days ago, the company hadn't posted anything on its Instagram since the announcement that it would be ending. Then Instagram personality Dean_DMB posted a picture and collaboration with the motorcycle manufacturer, and another post celebrating the fact that Arc's Vector motorcycle would be featured in an upcoming Halle Berry and Mark Walberg flick showed up.
We reached out to a contact that we know worked for Arc Vehicles at the time of its dissolution for comment, but haven't heard back by the time of publishing. Likewise, the American Arc Vehicle website is no more, while the UK one is still up. If we find out more, we'll let you know, but if anyone has any insight into Arc's sudden return, you can email me at Jonathon.klein@rideapart.com.
