At the beginning of this year already, Swytch had launched their conversion kit in the DACH region, as reported by velobiz.de. Now, the company collected about 3.9 million euros from different investors in a financing round. The money is to help replenish the stocks for the Swytch kit. Both previous and new supporters, mainly from Great Britain, have now helped to finance this project.
Ambitious goals, with the specialist trade as well
In the DACH region, a dealer network is also to be established in addition to direct sales. A respective announcement has recently been released by the company. The company brings business liability insurance into play to cover any risks that may arise to specialist dealers for the conversion. This is apparently worked out with Nurnberger Versicherung.
Towards velobiz.de experts and lawyers show themselves more than sceptical about the intended practice. “Business liability insurance does not protect against the existing ban on the provision of a converted bicycle by the dealer. Neither a manufacturer nor an insurer can reverse the law”, explains for example bicycle expert Dirk Zedler; and according to inquiries of velobiz.de, he is not alone with his opinion. Zedler continues: “All manufacturer obligations are the responsibility of the importer into the EU and thus provider of the usable machine, i.e. in this case the dealer who assembles the conversion kit. The dealer can neither make any statement as to the safety nor provide all accompanying documents and tests stipulated.”
In this connection, Zedler refers to the parts replacement guidelines that were worked out in a working group, as reported by velobiz.de.
At least in Germany, Swytch's ambitious plans are therefore unlikely to fall on fertile ground. The specialist trade should already be sensitised to the problem by the various associations, experts and consultants.
Author: Sebastian Gengenbach
Photo: Swytch Technology
