> From: Bruce {EVangel} Parmenter 
> To: Multiple recipients of list EV 
> Subject: EVLN(Bricklin's marketing timing 'Goes Yugo', Warrior wimps-out)

> Date: Monday, June 23, 1997 11:47 PM

>
> EVLN(Bricklin's marketing timing 'Goes Yugo', Warrior wimps-out)

> [The Internet Electric Vehicle List News. For Public EV informational

>  purposes. Contact source for reprint rights.]

>  ---

> Saturday, June 21, 1997

> Real Visionary Has Come Up Flat . . . Again

> Bankruptcy: Malcolm Bricklin's electric bikes, Yugos and gull-wing

> cars may have been riding ahead of their time.

> By CHRIS KRAUL, Times Staff Writer

> [F]or the third time in 20 years, Malcolm Bricklin was either ahead of

> his time, over the top or out of his element.  His Electric Bicycle

> Co. of Burbank, a visionary manufacturer of electric-powered mopeds,

> has gone bankrupt and is being liquidated after filing for protection

> from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy laws in

> February.

>
> Bricklin's failure is also costly for a number of high-profile

> investors, including St. Louis Rams owner Georgia Frontiere and author

> Sidney Sheldon, sources said. Bricklin went bust in 1975 trying to

> build a gull-winged sports car and then again in 1991 as an importer

> of the Yugo hatch-back automobile.

>
> Ironically, word of his bicycle company's collapse comes at a time of

> renewed interest in electric bicycles and scooters as cheaper, more

> powerful and longer-lasting electric models are being developed.

>
> There are 10 to 12 companies trying to bring electric two-wheelers to

> market, including Peugeot, Vespa and several U.S. and Japanese firms,

> said Robert Hayden, executive director of Electric Vehicle Assn. of

> the Americas, a San Francisco-based group of some 45 companies in the

> industry.

>
> Retired Chrysler Corp. () Chairman Lee Iacocca last week announced the

> formation of EV Global Motors to make electric bikes in a venture with

> Taiwanese bike maker Giant Co. and Unique Mobility of Golden, Colo.

>
> One of Bricklin's initial investors, retired Hughes Aircraft chief

> executive Malcolm Currie, recently started up his own electric bike

> company in Van Nuys called Currie Technologies. Currie was briefly an

> executive in Bricklin's company, but the two had a falling out last

> year.

>
> The company converted its bankruptcy filing to Chapter 7, a

> liquidation, on May 23, according to court documents. A creditors'

> meeting is scheduled for July 11.

>
> Messages left for Bricklin on a recording machine at the Electric

> Bicycle office in Burbank were not returned.

>
> After rolling out the EV Warrior electric bicycle last summer amid

> much fanfare at the Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A., Bricklin's

> company attained some success, selling several hundred bikes through a

> dealer network that included Webb Automotive Group () of Irvine and

> Marvin K. Brown of San Diego.

>
> But the company produced electric bicycles faster than its ability to

> market them, according to sources who asked not be named. The electric

> bicycles were also relatively expensive, at $1,400 to $1,800.

>  ...

>  http://www.latimes.com/

> Copyright Los Angeles Times, (800) 252-9141, (timeslink@latimes.com)

> (feedback@latimes.com)   Letters to the Editor: (Letters@latimes.com)



				

				

				

					

	

		
			

			
		

			
		

		

		
			

			

				
				
				
		

			
	










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