Swedish charging operator Eways owes more than 100 million kroner. Now bankruptcy is approaching, as the company is accused of withholding customers' money.
The charging operator Eways is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and the company is suspected of having withheld customers' money.
Housing associations and other private customers now risk losing the money they have paid to have a solution that can charge their cars.
Eways, one of the largest charging operators in the Nordic region, has installed thousands of charging boxes in several countries.
Despite a significant customer base and increased user growth in recent months, the Swedish legal system has refused to extend the period the company can have to reconstruct itself. Failure to do so will result in bankruptcy.
The Swedish legal system justifies the decision by saying that Eways has had lower revenue than expected, unrealistic future forecasts and a lack of investors.
The bankruptcy could have serious consequences for Eways' more than 2,000 creditors, including 650 housing associations. According to Dagens Industri, they risk getting very little or none of their receivables back.
Eways' business model is largely based on collaboration with housing associations that have installed charging stations.
Eways has acted as operator and handled payments for charging via their app. The agreement was that Eways took a fee of approximately 10 percent of the revenue and refunded the rest to the housing associations.
However, Dagens Industri writes that instead of complying with the agreement, Eways has used a large part of its customers' money to cover its own debts and operations. Several housing associations now risk losing all their money.
Eways has also failed to pay a tax debt of around 700,000 Swedish kronor. This corresponds to 454,000 Danish kronor. The Swedish tax authorities can therefore declare the entire company bankrupt.
It has also emerged that Eways' CEO also has problems with missing accounts and an additional tax debt in another company. The company, on the other hand, writes in a press release that it has appealed the district court's decision.
The situation creates great uncertainty for customers, who, in addition to the financial losses, cannot be sure where the power for their electric cars will come from in the long term.
The upcoming bankruptcy raises the question of whether charging operators like Eways should be subject to stricter regulation.
