Venturi owner gets into motorcycles with Voxan buy

Gildo Pallanca Pastor picked up French automaker Venturi back in 2001 after it had sunk into bankruptcy. Gildo has since produced a unique line-up of Sacha Lakic-designed electric vehicles, including a couple of sports cars and a pair of solar-paneled wagons. Now, he's doing it again, only this time the distressed French company is motorcycle maker Voxan. The goal is the same however. The previously produced gas-powered (and coincidentally, Sacha Lakic-designed) machines will remain "collectors' pieces" while a new generation of all-electric bikes are developed.

If you're the type to hold your breath while you wait for your battery-bike, don't. The time to launch of the first product could be as long as three years. While we can't say for sure what type of bikes the new Voxan will build, a statement about the transaction intimates there will likely be a performance-oriented machine developed. Hit the jump to read the official blurb for yourselves.

[Source: Venturi via MC24]

PRESS RELEASE

Gildo Pallanca Pastor acquires the French brand of motorcycles VOXAN

Marking a new strategy for VOXAN, this acquisition will complement that of VENTURI in the field of electric mobility.

VENTURI and VOXAN, whose destinies are notably linked through the same designer, Sacha Lakic, now find themselves side by side to embody the innovation policy which has been deployed by Gildo Pallanca Pastor since acquisition of the VENTURI brand in 2001.

VOXAN will benefit from VENTURI's experience and expertise in spearhead technologies in order to differentiate itself from large industrial motorbike groups and become a viable business enterprise. The take-over will propel VOXAN towards the future of mobility : the magnificent bikes it has produced until now will remain "collectors' pieces", a strong image on which the brand will continue to rely in order to evolve towards electric propulsion.

Sport will still be a development area for VOXAN, complemented by models intended for wider distribution.

Development of the first electric VOXAN will take almost three years. It will ultimately be manufactured in the Group's assembly plant at Sablé-sur-Sarthe.

After 15 years of activity, the firm was placed in official receivership on December 29th, 2009. This take-over, effective as of today, encompasses among other things all the brands, designs, models and moulds associated with VOXAN.