Czech Republic: Čezeta will probably end up in insolvency and unable to find a buyer

The manufacturer of electric scooters Čezeta will probably end up in insolvency and end production. The company was unable to find a buyer and its current owners were not willing to invest enough cash to continue operating. This was stated in a press release today by the CEO and majority owner of the company, Neil Eamonn Smith.

According to Smith, the company based in Prostějov is not profitable, although losses decreased every year from 2018 to 2020. In 2018 and 2019, it reported a total loss of over CZK 21 million.

He said, there are over 100,000 euros (2.6 million crowns) in sales orders on the waiting list, and Čezeta is practically debt-free, except for debts to its owners.

The company started looking for a new owner last autumn. Smith owns 70 percent and retail investors are represented by the crowdfunding company Crowdberry the remaining 30 percent.

Eight years ago, the company came up with a prototype electric scooter, which was based on the famous "pig" produced by the ČZ factory in the 50s and 60s. Between 2018 and 2020, it produced the first series of 60 506 scooters, which it exported to ten countries in Europe. It sold one motorcycle in the Czech Republic last year and 13 machines a year earlier.

In 2018, the Czech-Slovak crowdfunding company Crowdberry raised CZK 20 million for the company to start serial production of the first electric vehicle in the Czech Republic. Almost the entire scooter was created in the Czech Republic with the help of a network of 30 local suppliers.

He said, Cezeta is currently developing a new model 50 percent cheaper than the current one, which will cost more than CZK 300,000. Electric Čezeta became the Motorcycle of the Year in its category.

Dozens of employees assembled electric motorcycles in the Wikov complex in Prostějov. Plans for the expansion included up to 50 employees and the production of 2,000 machines per year.