In March 2017 the first prototype of the electric four-seater city e.GO Life was presented to the public at the expo
CeBIT in Hannover. Since May 2017 reservations for the e.GO Life were possible and reached a volume of 3.200 pre-orders in April 2018. The factory for the e.GO Life was opened in July 2018 with an expected output of 10.000-30.000 vehicles per year. The delivery of the first cars started in May 2019 where
Armin Laschet,
Minister-President of the state of
North Rhine-Westphalia, Prof.
Ulrich Rüdiger, rector of
RWTH Aachen University, and
Marcel Philipp, lord mayor of the city of Aachen, were among the first to receive an e.GO Life. Since then and up until Q1 2020 over 500 e.GO Life First Edition were delivered to customers. Due to supply chain and financing problems caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic, the e.GO Mobile AG had to file for a self-administered insolvency in April 2020. This process was successfully completed in September 2020 as nd Industrial Investment B.V. joined as a majority shareholder in the newly founded next.e.GO Mobile SE. On September 1, 2020, Next.e.GO Mobile SE took over the entire business of e.GO Mobile AG including all subsidiaries. The restart of the production is expected in early 2021. In December 2020 Enterprise Greece, the Greek state investment and trade promotion agency, and Next.e.GO Mobile SE have reached initial agreement on establishing an electric vehicle production facility in Greece. This second production facility serves as a next step in the internationalisation plans of e.GO and the full project is expected to be finished within 24 months. On July 10, 2021, the Bulgarian Minister of Economy Kiril Petkov and e.GO Mobile SE CEO Ulrich Hermann have signed an investment agreement for a Bulgarian production line. The electrical car plant will be built with technical expert support from the
RWTH Aachen University. Planned capacity is to exceed 30 000 units per year of the e.GO Life 70, e.GO Life Sport and the e.Go Life Cross models. Local partner of the project is
Kiril Domuschiev, the owner of the factory location in
Lovech, the
Balkan factory. According to Minister Petkov three other countries in the region were contenders for the manufacturing location, offering greater stimulus to the German company, but what the factors, which lead to Bulgaria winning the investment were the record time of the negotiations and Bulgaria's ever-growing car manufacturing supply sector. The negotiations were started and concluded in the span of five weeks. Most of the components for the electric vehicles will be sourced in the country, with major subcontractors being the Bulgarian divisions of
ETEM (aluminium bodywork),
Robert Bosch GmbH (software) and
Yazaki (electrical wiring).
Final bankruptcy and liquidation In March 2024 the company filed for bankruptcy again. On 29 May 2024, it was announced that the company would be liquidated. According to the insolvency administrator, business operations will be discontinued and the company is to be liquidated. The liquidation was unavoidable “because, despite intensive efforts, no buyer could be found to take over the financing until the new e.wave X model was ready for production,” the insolvency administrator explained in a letter to German media. When the company filed for insolvency in March 2024, 320 employees were still working for e.GO. Some have since left the company. The remaining 200 employees will be made redundant “in the near future.” As of June 2024, all operations ceased, the entire company and all physical assets at the Aachen plant were put up for auction and all staff and employees were effectively let go. == Models ==