Layoffs Reported at Mission Motors

Asphalt & Rubber has gotten word that Mission Motors has let go of a significant portion of its staff, both on the engineering and non-engineering sides of the San Francisco based startup. With the layoffs presumably the result of a lack of funding, the news comes interestingly just a few months after the departure of Mission’s Chief Financial Officer, Chris Moe, who made his return back to Vectrix in July of this year.

The bulk loss of its workforce is certain to be a blow to Mission Motors, which according to our sources, still has a core team in place to continue basic business operations. Making the switch from being an electric motorcycle company to supplying electric drive components to OEMs in Q1 2010, it wouldn’t surprise us if some of the now former Mission Motors employees found their way into other electric motorcycle manufacturers, and today’s news paints an interesting picture for the future of the Mission R electric superbike.

One of the assets in Mission’s arsenal of interesting products is of course the race-winning and journalist-humbling Mission R electric motorcycle. With Mission casually floating the idea that it would entertain licensing the design to a third party, Mission might be more amenable to inking a licensing/acquisition deal, and an interested party could now acquire more than just a motorcycle.

With two factions existing within Mission Motors when it came to selling electric motorcycles or OEM parts, time will have to tell as to whether this news opens or closes the future of the publicly well-received Mission R.

From what we understand, a number of Mission’s pro-motorcycle group are now officially free agents in the marketplace, so it will be interesting to see where they land in the industry once the dust settles.