Skip to main content

Stock of British electric moped brand Zapp hits skids months after US listing

The company has lost much of its value after market scepticism about startups’ prospects

The future of the British brand Zapp looked promising as its top team gathered around one of its electric mopeds and stared up at a billboard bearing its logo close to Times Square, New York, in May. They threw their arms aloft as they marked the six-year-old company’s listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange, in a deal valuing it at $573m (£467m). Another billboard declared: “Simply Electric. No compromise”. On social media, Zapp wrote: “All excited and ready for the next chapter! Live life unplugged.”

Six months on, the stock has hit the skids, and now has a market cap of $12.5m, according to the Nasdaq, and Zapp looks increasingly like it will join a host of British vehicle companies which have seen their US listing turn into an investors’ short stay car park.

Continue reading...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Nissan open to making cars for Chinese partner in Sunderland, says CEO

Ivan Espinosa says UK plant will not be hit by cost cuts as Japanese firm reveals seven factories to close Business live – latest updates Nissan’s new chief executive has said the Japanese carmaker would be open to building cars for a Chinese partner at its factory in Sunderland as he confirmed it would not be closed in a round of deep cost cuts. This week Nissan revealed plans to close seven factories and cut 20,000 jobs after sustaining heavy losses. Continue reading...

The car made pedestrians second-class citizens. Don’t let driverless vehicles push us off the road altogether | Adam Tranter

If we want autonomous tech to succeed it must be designed to share space with us, rather than forcing us to adapt to it Adam Tranter is the co-host of the Streets Ahead podcast. He was formerly West Midlands cycling and walking commissioner under mayor Andy Street This week, the UK government announced its plans to fast-track driverless vehicle trials in the UK. One of the key companies involved noted that London presents a significant challenge: “It has seven times more jaywalkers than San Francisco.” There’s more than one problem with that statement – and it encapsulates so much of what’s already going wrong in the adoption of driverless cars. For a start, “jaywalking” isn’t even a thing in the UK. We thankfully have no such concept or offence. Unlike in many US cities, pedestrians here are free to cross the road wherever they see fit. And thank goodness for that. Adam Tranter is the co-host of the Streets Ahead podcast. He was formerly West Midlands cycling and walking co...

EU carmakers pave way for Chinese rivals as balance in market shifts

Many European motoring manufacturers are in retreat with plants to off–load – while China’s industry is on the march Chinese carmaker Xpeng is on the hunt for a factory in Europe. Volkswagen is aiming to reduce the number of its factories. It seems like it should have been the perfect set-up for a deal. Yet there was one problem with the plant on offer, according to Elvis Cheng, Xpeng’s managing director of north-eastern Europe: “It’s a little bit, I would say, old.” Continue reading...