Once hailed as a beacon of Belgian innovation and green industrial ambition, Addax Motors — the only homegrown manufacturer of electric vans in the country — has filed for bankruptcy. The announcement, which puts 40 jobs at risk, brings a sudden halt to a bold experiment in sustainable manufacturing that began with lofty goals and local pride.
Founded in 2016 in the West Flanders town of Deerlijk, Addax was a rarity in Europe’s EV landscape: a small manufacturer producing zero-emission utility vehicles, assembled entirely on Belgian soil. Its compact vans served a growing demand from municipal services, urban logistics providers like DPD, and supermarket chains such as Delhaize and Albert Heijn. The company sold hundreds of units across 20 countries, pursued the ambition of an annual production of up to 4,000 vehicles as of this year, and was betting on the arrival of a new model slated for later in 2025.
Highly configurable and sustainable vans
A sense of purpose and optimism characterised Addax’s early years. Its then-CEO, Jean-Charles Carrette, proudly described it as “a symbol of local manufacturing and innovation,” offering fully digitalized, highly configurable vans made from sustainable, largely European-sourced parts. “We paid a lot of tuition fees,” Carrette said in 2022, “but we’ve proven that a Belgian company can lead in clean transport.”
But the cracks began to show long before this week’s collapse. Despite reporting €12.6 million in revenue last year, the company was suffering significant financial losses. Its net loss deepened to €4.9 million, and a series of urgent capital injections, including €1.7 million raised in late 2024, were insufficient to stabilize operations. Auditors flagged accounting irregularities, also including R&D costs that weren’t allocated to expenses.
New management to turn the tide
A change in leadership was intended as a saving buoy to reverse the downward trajectory. Carrette and his long-time colleague Daniel Kedzierski stepped down earlier this year, replaced by Koen Verhellen as CEO and Joris Noreillie as interim CFO. The new management team hoped to rescue the business, but suppliers were left unpaid, and recent crash tests fell short of expectations, aggravating the company’s outlook. Addax Motors also struggled to meet its ambitious production targets.
Addax Motors had received substantial backing from both public and private investors, including the brewery family of AB InBev shareholders. But even this support couldn’t protect the company from an increasingly competitive global EV market, dominated by larger, even better-capitalised players from China and beyond.
Growing list of failures
The bankruptcy raises questions not only about Addax’s future and whether a buyer might still be found, but also about the broader viability of small-scale EV manufacturing in Europe. With Dutch Lightyear, German Sono Motors (the vehicle arm), and Streetscooter, French Hopium, Swedish Volta, and Uniti, the list of failed attempts is growing at an alarming pace.
For a company that once proudly presented itself as a poster child for regional entrepreneurship, the sudden downfall of Addax Motors is a sobering reminder of just how difficult it is to translate sustainability rhetoric into industrial reality.
