Sondors eBike Finishes Its Crowdfunding Run & Captures Over $5M; Becomes Indiegogo’s 2nd Most Funded Project

On Thursday, Sondors’ eBike campaign on Indiegogo finally came to end. The project surfaced back in February (originally known as Storm eBike) and was originally seeking only $75,000. During its final days on the global crowdfunding platform, the eBikes successfully captured over $5 million, making it the second most funded project on the site.

Sondors’ eBike (which was named after the creator, Storm Sondors) is an all terrain bike that incorporates a high density lithium ion battery that will power you up to speeds of 20 miles per hour and up to distances of over 30 miles on single charge.  No worries though if you run out of juice because thats when pedal power kicks in.

Unfortunately, with unbelievable promises comes some doubts. In an article published on Yahoo, the author correlates multiple opinions that call the validity of the eBike into question.

“You can build an e-bike in China and sell it for $500, but it won’t be very high quality, says Ann McSpadden, proprietor of Alien Scooters, a retailer of electric vehicles outside Austin, Texas.”

Warren Pollock, an entrepreneur who has worked with Chinese e-bike companies is quoted saying;

“At $500 apiece,” he says, “the company would be selling e-bikes at a loss, once they factored in product liability insurance, quality control, regulatory compliance, safety testing, and post-sales service and support. Chinese e-bikes could certainly ‘leak’ into the U.S. market near that cost, be sold as a loss leader, or be marketed directly on eBay, but a fully costed business model could potentially lose up to $250 per bike.”

Prodeco, a company based in Florida, has been selling an eBike for $1300, also named Storm, since 2010.  The  company filed a Cease and Desist letter earlier this week

Prodeco CEO Robert Provost is quoted on the crowdfunding campaign;

“About three days ago we started getting phone calls and emails from people asking, ‘Where’s your $500 e-bike?”

Fortunately, Sondors immediately responding by offering a demo day to everyone that was interested in the eBike. This demo presentation managed to clear the air of any fraud accusations. Electric Fat eBike even wrote an excellent write up on the Storm eBike crowdfunding campaign and noted that he is very skeptical of the product but he has also backed the campaign.

Condors’ eBike campaign is still accepting funds through Indiegogo’s InDemand program and has extended its backer price deal of $649. The bikes’ expected delivery date is August 2015.