Is Hesketh Motors signaling the rebirth of Vectrix?

The Vectrix was the first highway capable production electric motorcycle when introduced in 2007. Unfortunately the company ran into financial difficulties (see: Why Vectrix is teetering on bankruptcy, pt. I) and in September declared bankruptcy (see: Vectrix is dead, long live the New Vectrix?) with an announced intention for a new company, named New Vectrix, to buy out the Vectrix assets to attempt a rebirth. The sale was supposed to be finalized by Oct 27 but no news has been come out. That is, except for a November 11 press release from Hesketh Motors, and a November 12 article on londonbikers.com discussing how Hesketh, an old motorcycle brand in England, is due to begin selling the Vectrix under their brand name.

Hesketh claims they have made an exclusive agreement with “New Vectrix”, the new corporation designated to buy the assets of Vectrix Corporation. The agreement is claimed by Hesketh to cover sales of Vectrix bikes in the UK under the brand name ‘Hesketh HZE-Vectrix’. These bikes will be marketed as a premium product for the commuter market with two new models expected during the course of 2010. Charles Hesketh, Director of HMC, said. “This is a brand new chapter in the life of what we know as the World’s first high performance, zero emission, production motorbike. We spent a considerable amount both financially and energetically searching for a zero emission two-wheeled vehicle worthy of the Hesketh brand, and the Vectrix VX-1 meets all our requirements.”

In Hesketh’s press release they claim that New Vectrix has committed to continuing production of the Vectrix. However no such announcement has been made by New Vectrix.

Instead the bankruptcy and sale process is still underway, as of this writing. Some actions listed in the bankruptcy documents are: The corporation formerly known as Vectrix is now known as “Electric Scooter Wind Down, Corp” which obviously makes way for the Vectrix brand name to be included in the assets being sold. A new corporation name, Vectrix Acquisition Corp, is named as the buyer of Vectrix assets. One document is an order authorizing sale of “certain assets” to Vectrix Acquisition Corp, but the assets are not listed. The documents do not make it clear the disposition of Vectrix’s subsidiaries, Vectrix Europe or Vectrix Poland. Vectrix Europe is a holding company whose purpose that exists to hold stock in Vectrix Poland and Vectrix Italy. According to the bankruptcy documents Vectrix Italy was fully liquidated by Sep 30, 2008, and Vectrix Poland has itself entered bankruptcy under Polish law.

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About David Herron

David Herron is a writer and software engineer living in Silicon Valley. He primarily writes about electric vehicles, clean energy systems, climate change, peak oil and related issues. When not writing he indulges in software projects and is sometimes employed as a software engineer. David has written for sites like PlugInCars and TorqueNews, and worked for companies like Sun Microsystems and Yahoo.