Verde Autos

douglasjkelly

Anyone know what's happening to Verde Autos? It seems like the business has folded. The landline has been disconnected and the guy in charge (not sure if I can use his name here) is not answering or returning calls on his mobile.

Verde Autos are, or I should probably say were, an electric vehicle company based in Little Island in Cork. They sold mopeds, quads, cars and vans. If, like me, you were unlucky enough to buy one of their products then you have probably been trying to contact them to get your product fixed.

I love the idea of electric transport and when I heard about the company I knew I had to get a moped. I first bought a Verde 1500 moped (1,500 watt) in January 2009. It cost me €1,000. It was fine on even terrain but as soon as you went uphill you had a build up of traffic behind you. Two months after owning it there was a problem with the accelerator so I had to bring it back. They did not offer to collect the bike for me so I had to get it out to them. They got a replacement part for it and I was back silently and slowly getting around the place. I got fed up of the lack of speed on hills so traded up to a Verde 2500 (which cost an additional €1,250).

For the better part of a year I was delighted with the 2500. It was much faster, fine on hills (not brilliant but a big improvement) and the breaks were a lot better. As a mode of transport I cannot recommend an electric moped enough however I would strongly recommend NOT going any where near Verde Autos for your electric transport needs. In May of this year (2010) the 2500 broke down after just 3,000km of use. After two weeks of trying to contact Verde they got back to me. Again, I had to drop the moped over myself. Even though it was out of warranty they fixed it free of charge. That took about a week. They said the controller and motor had gone. A little worrying as an electric moped has three main parts: battery, controller and motor and two of the 3 had broken. I got the moped back and all seemed fine until 3 months later (the odometer now reading 3,200km) it broke down again. For the past month I've been trying to contact them but to no joy.

Would love to hear from anyone who bought one of their products. As far as I know their products are imported from China and they just stick their logo on them.

Cuddlesworth

I have never bothered but every story I have heard about any Chinese motoring product has been a nightmare. Simply put, Chinese knockoffs are badly made pieces of crap. Your man from Cork has probably given up and folded the company. Most Chinese importers make money initially but give up when all their products sold end up coming back constantly.

douglasjkelly

You're probably right there Cuddlesworth. At least I got a good year out of it. For what I saved on petrol I probably made most of my money back. Still though, you'd expect a motorised vehicle to last more that 3,200km. My Honda Civic has around 250k km on the clock and is 17 years old and is still going strong. I guess we're talking about quality control versus no quality control.

KamiKazi

Cuddlesworth

douglasjkelly wrote: »

You're probably right there Cuddlesworth. At least I got a good year out of it. For what I saved on petrol I probably made most of my money back. Still though, you'd expect a motorised vehicle to last more that 3,200km. My Honda Civic has around 250k km on the clock and is 17 years old and is still going strong. I guess we're talking about quality control versus no quality control.

I looked into it before. Essentially, the best knockoffs are ones made in the same plant or by the same people. They skimp on materials but the moulds and process are the same. These are ones that will go 50-100% the distance on the model copied depending on how lucky you were.

Then you have the bad knockoffs. These are generally the result of cheap moulds and cheap materials. A **** alloy and a couple of mill's off on one small part and the lifespan goes down the drain.

Unfortunately for china, this is the type of product Western society see. Luckily for them, their expanding market means they won't care about us really for a long long time.

hahoka1777

I think even if the vehicle is crap after a year or two, I would try it just because of investment return on saving petrol. Does anybody knows where, how to buy under which conditions? Thanks

P.C.

Old thread.

Start a new one if you want proper answers.

Cuddlesworth

False economy buying a bike to save on petrol alone. Consumables wear much quicker and the mileage murders depreciation, especially a Chinese piece of crap.