Alta Motors
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Alta Motors developed and manufactured electric motorcycles.
02 / Alta Motors FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Alta Motors failed primarily because it ran out of capital to sustain its manufacturing operations. Despite selling over 1,000 electric motorcycles in 2018 and growing sales, cash-flow problems forced it to seek new investors. The collapse of its March 2018 partnership with Harley-Davidson, which had agreed to invest in exchange for Alta developing electric drivetrains, removed its most important lifeline: Harley pulled out within about six months to build its own electric R&D facility, and Alta could not find replacement funding in time. Underlying pressure came from a shrinking domestic motorcycle market and the high cost of building electric motorcycles at small scale, which made the capital-intensive business hard to sustain without a deep-pocketed backer.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Company founded
Alta Motors was founded.
- Operations ended
Alta Motors ended operations.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Alta raised about $45 million in total capital across its lifetime, starting from $8.2 million as BRD Motorcycles in 2014 and $27 million in 2017.
- 02
On October 18, 2018, the company posted a farewell message and ceased operations, laying off staff and closing its Brisbane, California headquarters.
- 03
Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) subsequently acquired select assets, including intellectual property, patents, and limited physical items; BRP stated it had no plans to restart the Alta brand.
- 04
Shareholders and investors were left with essentially nothing, as the company wound down with no remaining operating business.