Hesketh gets right to new Vectrix in the UK

MIDDLETOWN – A British motorcycle company said Thursday it has signed an agreement to sell zero-emission electric bikes manufactured by the successor to Vectrix Corp., which filed for bankruptcy last month.

Hesketh Motorcycles Ltd., a subsidiary of Hesketh Motor Company Ltd., said it secured an exclusive deal last month with New Vectrix LLC, which spent roughly $5 million to buy most of Vectrix’s assets in a deal approved by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge.

New Vectrix was incorporated in Delaware earlier this year to buy Vectrix’s assets in bankruptcy.

New Vectrix is owned by GH Venture Partners LLC, a New York-based private merchant bank, and Singapore-based GP Batteries International Ltd. GP Batteries is itself a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Gold Peak Industries (Holdings) Ltd.

London-based Hesketh said New Vectrix plans to continue producing bikes, which will be sold in the United Kingdom as the Hesketh HZE-Vectrix. Two new models will be introduced next year, Hesketh said.

Hesketh said it plans to offer Vectrix’s current dealer network a new contract that will extend the warranties on all bikes sold over the last two years.

“This is a brand new chapter in the life of what we know as the world’s first high-performance, zero-emission, production motorbike,” Charles Hesketh, Hesketh Motor’s director, said in a statement.

“We spent a considerable amount both financially and energetically searching for a zero emission two-wheeled vehicle worthy of the Hesketh brand, and the Vectrix VX-1 meets all our requirements,” he added.

Hesketh Motor was founded in the early 1980s to make premium motorbikes by Lord Alexander Hesketh, a British noble and Formula One racer. The company fell into bankruptcy twice, but was kept alive in the intervening years by Broom Development Engineering, which recently sold the brand to its current owner, according to published reports.